Chaos Squared
by The Next Muse
Summary: Ranma's indestructible, right? What would happened if he got hurt... and badly? What would become of his life? Who are his friends and who are his enemies? Find out.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters and this is not for profit.

Blah blah blah. You know the drill.

Beware...semi-serious fic alert.

The reason I like this idea so much is that Ranma finally has a chance to see what has happened in his life. He had so little time to adjust to the changes because a new one keep popping up and off balanced him again and he has to adjust to the new one. This is a continuation

I am a pro-Ranma person and therefore a Knight of Da Wild Horse.

This a good hard look at Ranma and if there is any True Financee Akane lovers there or any other Fiancée lovers, STAY AWAY FROM HERE AND DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER.

This will be an alternate story with match ups other than any of the traditional fiancees, if any. I will try to keep them in character, but this is my interpretation of their actions.

IF THEY ARE OUT OF CHARACTER, TOUGH AND STOP READING.

This is my opinion (both manga and anime) that each was too much of an extreme for many of the characters. In this story, I will combine them into more balanced characters.

This arc would be a crossover of Ranma 1/2, Sailor Moon, OMG and plus bits of other anime too.

I actually don't know who would end up with him. In this, I feel that at least in the original manga that there was an inequity among the fiancees. I intend to level the playing field for everyone.

...

CHAOS SQUARED

...

Prologue

A small creature was wandering in through the open door. No one took notice because of the wedding.

"She's a sweet girl... sometimes she's a violent maniac." The words that Kasumi had said when Akane had clobbered him with the table spread through one Ranma Saotome's mind.

He was also tired, so very tired. Tired of trying to save everyone's honour when they did nothing to help. Tired when they were in their own selfish fantasy world that meant only THEIR honour was important. Tired of his life in general.

The defeat of Saffron had taken its toil on him with the miraculous resurrection of Akane Tendo with the waters of Jusenkyo. The sudden marriage plans by their parents had taken everyone, especially him, by surprise. With the encouragement from the others, especially his mother, had had consented to marriage.

He was both glad and miffed when he learned that Saffron was reborn to the egg and that the Phoenix had the power, but not the control he should have had with his flame when he killed him. Still even with the incomplete transformation, Saffron, himself, was more powerful than anything the Musk or the Amazons could muster.

At that point in time, he just wanted it over with. He was tired of his chaotic life and wanted a more normal one.

When the others had crashed the wedding, the peanut gallery of Tatawaki Kuno with a real katana and Kodachi Kuno in a black wedding kimono had arrived.

It happened.

He was with Akane. They talked at first and then had an argument, like always, as he was denying that he said all that mushy stuff. That stuff still made him uncomfortable. What surprised him was that she said they didn't have to go through with the wedding, but ominously warned him that that marrying her was the best thing for him. He didn't understand it at the time. To him, it was a vague threat that even his danger sense was warning him about, but dismissed it because of the occasion and that he thought he loved her.

This was supposed to be a happy occasion.

He was surprised when he saw Shampoo, Cologne and Mousse with Ukyou Kuonji and Konastsu Kenzan taking up the rear actually through the front door and looking around for him.

BOOM!!

When he saw Ryouga Hibiki came through the wall, Ryouga accidentally smashed Tendo Soun, Akane's father, and the casket he had in his hands away. He was shocked when he saw the words Nannichuan written on it then he was overjoyed. He would finally be over his curse. Well, Ryouga, Mousse and his father came at it too.

At the time, it was surprising that Ryouga and Mousse wasn't trying to kill him, but they would tell him afterwards that Ryouga wanted Akane to be happy. Ryouga grudgingly accepted that Ranma may be that person, besides he had Akari Ryuu, Raiser of Sumo Pigs, now. Mousse wanted him to marry Akane because Shampoo would be free to marry him. Mousse and Shampoo had gotten closer or at least Shampoo acknowledged Mousse's feelings for her and didn't bash him. Genma was just getting it for himself. Konastsu wanted Ranma to marry so that he would have only have Tsubasa as a rival.

For almost the entire time he was in Nerima, everybody knew that he had tried to get rid of the curse. Even though he would have done almost anything to get a cure, even he had a limit. Secretly, he was resigned that he would be a woman at least part of the time and was trying to adjust to it even before Saffron. The main reason was that too many times when he almost had a cure, it backfired on him and made his problems worse. If that wasn't enough, it usually made Akane mad at him and that cascaded into more trouble from her family, his family and his rivals.

As they were running for the casket, he had seen everybody's expression from the corner of his eyes. With him, Ryouga, Mousse and Genma going after the casket, he could everybody was surprised except Soun and, more to the point, Akane that there was actually a barrel of Nannichuan water.

It was at that point that many things came together in his head, a turning point and his world started to fall apart as suddenly the casket was deflected by a chair towards Ukyou and Shampoo. The creature had pushed the chair over.

It struck him as he was chasing the water that the warning that Akane had given him made sense. He felt hurt that Akane had known about the casket and didn't tell him about it when she knew how much he wanted it. At the same time, he was angry that Soun and Akane who chose this occasion to do it in. It put them in a bad light in his opinion because it would have been in their possession since they came back from Jusenkyo, but chose not to tell anyone about it. They could have everyone at anytime, but chose not to. In the light of the situation, he was truly disappointed in Akane. If she truly trusted and cared about him as he did about her then why she would have told him without resorting to warning like threat. He could have gotten cured, heck, everyone could have gotten cured. Did she really think that the cure would get him to marry her?

That didn't happen.

When he ran to get it, Ryouga, Mousse and Genma Saotome, his father, followed him. As they fell and tipped over, they were horrified when Happosai intercepted it. What really made him angry was when Happosai drank all of the water, smashed the casket and then muttered, "Blah, only water? Where's the special saké?"

Then it all blew up in his face.

The scene froze him for a second with thoughts of stringing up Happosai for what he did. He didn't carry out his thoughts because, at that moment, a crying Ukyou ran to him and blubbered through teary eyes, "Why are you getting married?" Behind her was a silently crying Shampoo.

At any other time, he would have panicked, but not now. As his brain started going into overdrive after all of the shocks. He had his chance to tell her that he thought her as... his thoughts became a jumble.

Flash

Right now, he could say he liked Akane a lot, maybe even...

Right now, he could say that he liked her, Ukyou, only as a friend...

Right now, he could say that he wouldn't be breeding stock for their chauvinistic village. He had seen what had happened to men and boys with even his short stay there.

Flash

Right now, he could picture Akane when she helped him in the cheerleading fight with Mariko Kunjou.

Right now, he could picture Ukyou trying to kill him when she met up with him.

Right now, he could picture Shampoo chasing after him to kill him in his female form.

Flash

Akane was the only one not pressuring him into marriage...

Ukyou was always the 'cute financee' and worker for her restaurant...

The Amazons was always trying to get him through tricks and potions for breeding stock...

As he was about to admit to himself that he loved Akane, a couple of stray thoughts made themselves known as his anger cooled...

He was miffed about Akane not telling him about the Nannichan water...

He knew that Ukyou would never do that to him, she helped him out a lot of times as they searched for a cure...

He knew that despite everything, the Amazons DID help out a lot even going so far with the instant Nannichuan, even if he had to go out on a date with Shampoo...

He then had to wonder why the Amazons didn't offer him the water to marry Shampoo? Was there something about the curse that he should known about?

He even wondered why they didn't just take him at the beginning if Cologne had more advanced knowledge than him... Certainly, they could easily have done so as Cologne was that much more powerful than him in the beginning...

It seemed strange to him that Ukyou and Shampoo were only now gaining his trust. They weren't involved in any schemes recently and were actually seeing things from his perspective. He had a good long talk with them before the Saffron Incident and they were appalled at the things that his father had done and what kind of mess he was in. After that, they were actively trying to help him sort out his problems.

Even as those thoughts came, against his will, other images passed through his mind...

Seeing Akane turning her back on him or manipulating her father to use his Demon Head Technique to get him to do what she wanted like eat her cooking when she 'improved' it and didn't bother to taste it herself. Yelling at him to fight her for real and when he knocked her down in their subequent sparring matches, she always ran to her father and got the Demon Head treatment for CHEATING by hitting a girl, namely her. Of course, his worthless father came along and called him a unworthy martial artist for hitting his fiancée and a girl. Even his mother, Saotome Nodoka, sided with Akane as she called him unmanly for hitting her. It seemed that he wasn't supposed to hit her, even when she pulled out her mallet in a sparring match.

Seeing Ukyou who had a kind ear for him at her restaurant and stuck with him through thick and thin when others had refused to listen him when Akane was mad at him.

Seeing the Amazons who, even with their own agenda, gave him good advice for his problems, unlike his family or anyone else.

Even more images came into his mind...

The images of Akane stomping away from him from his place on the ground after he defeated an opponent who had challenged the Dojo and the Heir spiralled in his head. It was apparent to him that Akane and both their fathers simply ignored that the challenge was to the Dojo Heir, who was her, and dragged him into it on his honour when she was about to lose and then after it became HIS responsibility. Every time they said it was because he was Akane's fiancée and therefore a pseudo heir and had to defend her and the honour of the TENDO Dojo. When they did that, it was plainly wrong. They would try to push him into it by threatening or intimidating, but only when the challenger agreed did he actually engage in the fight and most did after Soun's Demon Head Attack. What was worse was that Akane didn't seriously object to this interference until he had won and the challenger left. After, she proceeded to berate him and then tell HIM to mind his own business because she was a martial aritst and Heir to the dojo. Both the idiots, her father and his father, would back her up and say that the Dojo was practically hers.

He shook his head. Images of his ten torturous years sped through his cranium. He had been beaten, starved, deprived of almost any human contact, and went through insane training to get to his level. He earned every one of his skills and had the scars to prove it, only to have Akane turn her nose up at him as if he was now beneath her because of the Dogi Suit. With her actions, his opinion and respect for her plunged because she was using something she would have fiercely called cheating, dishonourable, etc. for anyone else. He could now see his actions as a desperate person who wanted to justify that the ten years of hell were not wasted.

The Images of Ukyou giving him a shoulder to cry on when the others pounded, literally and figuratively, on him and his honour. Many times, she would put aside her own pursuit of him to help him out, even though she did go with the cute fiancée gig later.

The images of the Amazons' laughing faces when they told him that the Kiss of Marriage or Death wasn't mandatory. The Kiss was only for prestige and a way for them to get an opponent to fight harder. They explained to him that it was the only reason why Akane was still alive when she was given the Kiss of Death for accidentally defeating Shampoo. They could have killed her at any time with spells, poison, ambushes and so on, but that didn't happen. On the other hand, they told him the Kiss of Marriage was a very serious matter with a huge loss of honour if they didn't get their male. The first strike was getting a Jusenkyo curse. The second strike... let's say there would never be a third strike, ever.

He tried to have positive thoughts about Akane and the images he got was Akane smiling at him and sometimes being nice... before changing to smacking him or yelling at him when he was just talking to any girl, not to mention a legitimate fiancée. What really got him annoyed now was that she always called him a pervert with his bimbos or that she said that she was saving the new girl's honour from his perverted ways after she punches or punts him into LEO. His dates with the other fiancées were mostly tricks and to get a cure. After, the everyone else harps on him that he was 'unfaithful' to Akane or that he was a pervert who wanted to go out with his bimbos. Contrast this when she accetped and went out with Ryouga, who is not her financé, for a 'date' when he asked and no one objected it to her. They just forced him to stop the date by saying he was her fiancé and should do something about it because it was a stain on HIS honour. They knew that he would get the fallout from that action.

He took a deep breath, but knew that Ukyou and Shampoo who didn't pretend to misunderstand him or the situation like everyone else or by a certain tomboy. Even if a new fiancée pops out of the woodwork, they don't smack him or belittle him when it wasn't even his fault. They know whose fault it really was.

He was getting confused. He wasn't really good at this mushy stuff.

But... in truth, the answer he got was one of trust and that was the heart of the matter.

Even he knew that Akane was jealous, yet blamed him for her own insecurities whether it was real or not by slapping, yelling, punching, kicking or just ignoring him. Most of these times, their families would get involved in either trying to get them back together by getting him to apologize to her and 'beg' forgiveness, even if she was the one at fault.

As he snapped out of his thoughts, he found that he wasn't the only one who was affected by crying females. Cologne comforted Shampoo. Ryouga and even Mousse, who could hear Ukyou, paused as they felt helpless of what to do and for once didn't blame him. Over the time they got to know her, they both liked her. They could always talk to her. In that pause they were helpless as he was and knew instinctively that only Ranma could help her.

In any other circumstances, he would have no clue what to do, but what he knew as that Ukyou needed him the most out of everyone. He did the only thing he could do. He hugged her, trying to comfort her.

At first, Ukyou resisted then she started bawling out and that made Ranma feel as guilty as ever. Ryouga and Mousse moved away. It was an emotional moment and they didn't want to seem unmanly.

Of course at that point, Akane saw what Ranma was doing.

At HER wedding.

The most unspeakable thing.

Hugging one of the women who crashed her wedding in her eyes.

She was seeing red as she focused on the two people and marched right over. People parted as they saw her red battle aura spring into life.

He knew what would be next. Despite them both saying that they loved each other, she was still a spoiled brat. She would start yelling that it was his fault that this happened. It always happened. Yes, later she would put the blame on the right people and made amends... sometimes, but it annoyed him to no end that she still had that stuck up attitude when he first came to the dojo. Blame Ranma first.

Akane yelled to the heavans, "Ranma, you jerk! This is my wedding! How dare you invite your bimbos to it!"

Ranma could see from the corner of his eye that Nabiki, the middle Tendo sister and the one who brought in all the money to the family, cringe at the yell and knew that who was really to blame, but he said nothing. He and Nabiki had grown closer. He actually did help her in her money gathering events that lead to her dropping her more 'questionable' activities. Surprisingly though, they did share some interests. They both loved ice cream and mangas. He read a lot of fighting mangas such as Street Fighter, King of Fighters, Naruto and others. He got hooked on them when he was in China with their version of a fighting story. It was the mangas that he had much of his inspirations and was directly respoinsible for his use of the Hiryo Hyou Toppa (Flying Dragon Ice Breakthrough) after he wanted to get variations of the attack after his fight with Herb when he used the Hiryü Körin Dan (Flying Dragon Descent Bomb) at the last second.

As he focused back on Akane, the words came back to him what Kasumi said to him the first time he was knock out by her. Akane was a sweet girl, all in all. The problem was that she had a very bad habit that when she formed her first opinion of you, no matter how ludicrious or wrong, it stuck like others he knew. It turned her into a violent maniac and was especially prevelent when she was angry like now. Even now, when she knew that he couldn't have done what she said since he was just dragged here by Akane's father, his father and mother, there she goes again, blaming him. Another part of the problem was that people agreed with her, even though they knew she was wrong or only heard her side of it, which compounded the problem because he was starting to see Mr. Tendo start his Demon Head Attack on him. It galled him that no one said anything when Akane later went out with Ryouga and even Shinnosuke and then yelled at him for see Ukyou, a legitimate fiancée. He knew it didn't do any good until she cooled down.

Ukyou took out her giant spatula and Shampoo took out her bonbori.

That was enough for Akane as she slapped Ranma. Everything narrowed for Akane on Ranma and Ukyou. If that wasn't enough, she then knocked Ukyou and Shampoo's weapons out of the way and slapped Ranma again on the other cheek when Ranma pushed her from him and then yelled at him, "Ranma, you jerk!! This is MY weddin..."

That sentenced died a very slow and painful death as she saw a katana sticking out of Ranma's chest and slowly followed it back to the raving Kuno then froze. What she couldn't see was that the blade had exited through the other side. The twist that Kuno did next with his sword tore at everyone there as twisted it to inflict maximum damage when he removed it.

Moments passed that felt like an eternity and it seemd to everyone that there were in an old fashion B movie.

The scene where Ranma was sliding to the floor.

Then their was darkness for him

Cologne and Happosai were trying to stem Ranma's blood as tears streamed out of their ancient eyes. Kuno was raving about how he vanquished the evil sorceror and freeing both his Tigress Akane Tendo and his Pig Tailed Goddess as well as his Bubbly Amazon and Okonomiyaki Goddesses. Shampoo, Ukyou and Kodatchi were enraged as they put a beatdown on Kuno then punted him into LEO.

Everyone else was in shock.

It was only broken by a mother's heart wrenching scream of pain that came from her shattered soul. Genma ran to his wife when she slumped down as tears ran down his eyes. Soun snapped out of his stupor when Kasumi also screamed and tried to comfort her. Surprisingly, tears started falling from Nabiki's eyes as well.

What took everyone by surprise occurred when tears started falling from Kodatchi's eyes as she stared at the sword wound and then fainted.

As time slowed, a lot of thoughts had sunk in the other's thick skulls.

What Akane didn't realize was that Kuno was there with Kodachi when she slapped Ranma when he was with Ukyou.

What Akane hadn't heard, in her rage, Kuno's yell as it was behind her, call his attack. Kuno had been committed to the attack as she smacked Ranma.

What Akane didn't realize was that Ukyou and Shampoo didn't take out their weapons to battle her. She stopped them from coming to Ranma's defence.

What Akane didn't realize was that it wasn't she who he was looking at when she came over. Her second slap had to stunned Ranma again as he gave her a hurt look. Her interference was enough to give Kuno the opening for him to make the successful strike.

What Akane now realized was that she may be responsible for killing Ranma.

What no one would know until later was that there will be a reckoning and now take the toll on everyone.

Time resumed.

Everybody froze until Cologne yelled, "Call an ambulance!!"

Chaos erupted as people converged on Kuno who was now yelling that he has killed the Foul Sorcerer Saotome.

As Ranma shook himself awake, he looked up and saw a girl on an oar.

He met her before... Botan... when he went through the Neko Ken and the various other insane training methods that his old man did to him. He had also seen her with a gaijin girl with black hair, pale skin and an ankh, who told him that she was Death. He remembered that each time she gently pushed him back into his body and kept saying that it wasn't his time yet. When he told his father about it, his father thought he was delusional and doubled his training.

He looked back down at himself, but not in shock. He knew that it was likely a fatal hit in the chest as it cut his left lung, just missing his heart by mere millimeters. On the whole, he just shrugged. It was better this way, this time everyone's honour will be intact... well except his and he can die in peace.

Botan didn't say anything as she looked him. The sadness in his face told her the entire story, but was surpised when it lit up a bit. She stayed here because he was here. It seemed that he wanted to see, at least, if his death made any difference to the people he cared about after seeing Death and her telling him that it was time. It did and now he could rest in peace.

She could wait.

Some time later

Somewhere in Nerima General Hospital

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

The steady rhythm of the patient's heart was comforting to the lone occupant. Nabiki Tendo, the Mercenary of the Tendo Clan, was sitting quietly in the sterile room next to an unconscious Ranma. She was nursing her hot tea that she had gotten from the cafeteria.

She sighed as those thoughts were far away as she looked upon the once energetic young man with all those tubes stuck into him. The unnatural stillness of Ranma had a morbid effect on her. It reminded her of when she had visited her mother. She couldn't get her mind over the fact that the Invincible Ranma had almost died. Sure, sometimes he was sick from Akane's cooking or beat up a bit from his rivals or other challengers or fiancées and yes Akane also, but this was the first time that he was actually in the hospital for a prolonged period of time.

She looked around the room and then sighed. It was touch and go for a while when he accidentally changed into his female form and back again during it. The trouble hadn't stopped there. When Ranma was resting in his room, others came over with their own problems and promptly dumped it on him. When she thought about it, it occurred to her that Ranma wasn't the actual source of chaos. Everyone else around him was. He was just the recipient of their chaos.

Sigh.

As she looked around her, she knew that he had gotten a better and more secured room before the fiasco that destroyed his old room in the other wing. She still shook her head when she remembered the sequence of what happened. It was so typical.

That had been two week ago with no change in his condition.

She was still in shock as she shook her head as thought how all of this went wrong. How all of what was supposed to be a happy time turned tragic. How her baby sister had still chosen to blind herself to say that Ranma was still a pervert after all that he had done and been through because of her. She shook her head and finally faced the facts that she failed.

She saw that everything that happened had advanced Akane's standing as head finacée. It was Akane who was kidnapped so that Ranma had to save her. It was Akane who everyone defended. It was Akane who everyone helped.

Heck, she took the last six months to teach Ranma to be better in school and life for Akane's sake. It appalled her that, at the time, she didn't even worry that Ranma had no idea what sex was, althought it did make her think of the incident when Ranma saw Akane's panties and honestly commented on it without batting an eye. It really changes her perspective about the 'pervert' comment that Akane loved to use on Ranma.

The only good that came out of that was Ranma's grades and vocabulary drastically improved; yet everyone, especially Akane, wanted him to change back to being the jock. She guessed that since school was the one place that Akane actually outshone Ranma then it was wiser for him not to beat Akane. They both talked to the teachers and it was agreed that his grades would be consistently lower than Akane until it was time for the true marks would be recorded.

She sighed. When she got down to it, who defended him against others? Even if it was more for self interest, it was Ukyou who did it. When Kasumi asked Akane to stop hitting Ranma.

What did Akane do?

Akane promptly broke her promise and smacked him within a very short time when she simply lost her temper with no consequences. What made her feel sad was that she never attempted to followed up and have Akane curb her temper and her resorting to physical violence or belittling him after. Everything would have been better if she had. To her eternal shame, she got so used to the abuse that she that thought of Akane treatment of Ranma was 'normal', even knowing how he was raised.

She failed everyone, but especially herself. She had taken responsibilities of the finances and did many things in the name of her family, but when the true test came when Ranma first came here, she 'dropped the ball' and fostered Ranma on Akane. Now this happened.

Just inside the room was another uninvited guest, a System Bug, had come from a portal that it created. System Bugs, as everyone knew in Heaven and Niflheim were creatures that screwed up the running of the Ygdrasil System. Unknown to anyone else, after the Great War that sundered his first children into Heaven and Niflheim, Kami-sama Himself developed the them to balance the running of the Universe. Also, despite appearances, they were very intelligent, well some were at least, as they knew the role they play.

The System Bug was in Ranma's room for a particular reason. As Ranma had suspected, his life was a plaything of higher beings and they were the source of chaos and he was merely the regulator. Ironically, he was the very source of order in this myst of chaos since everything would have blown up without him intervening. What the young pig tailed man didn't know was that both powers above and below were equally using him for entertainment. He had a high potential and a direct descendant from a First Class god on his mother's side and a First Class demoness from his father's side. Still, for the life of him, the bug couldn't understand why they wanted Ranma to be married to Akane. Sure she was a descendant from another goddess, but so where her sisters, the okonomiyaki chef, the Amazon and even crazy girl. Yet, the latter four girls weren't given any leeway to court Ranma.

Nabikii was startled when a nurse came in. She had long platinum blond hair and a shapely figure that Nabiki was a bit envious about.

"The nurse smiled, "It's time for Ranma's bath." Nabikii blushed and walked out of the room.

As the door closed, the System Bug hopped onto Ranma's chest, it just waited because he knew that the Skuld, the scourge of the System Bugs, would come and try to debug it. It knew that it's mission was about be fulfilled when it saw a swirly thing in the hot tea that Nabiki had on the table next to the desk. The meddling of the other powers had to stop now as they were trying to control every aspect of Ranma's life from the Seppukku contract to Nekoken and the running from the wolves to his life in Nerima and his battles with Herb and Saffron. They stopped Ranma's free will and that was a big no no in Kami-sama's book.

Right on schedule, the swirl came and a girl that looked about 12 years old came out. "Where is it?!" Skuld was frantically looking for that particularly annoying bug. It had eluded her for the last two years and now she had it cornered.

"Skuld! What are you doing here?!" the nurse asked in a panicked voice. She was here to make sure that Ranma didn't die on her. He was too entertaining. She was appalled that her favourite, Akane, had almost killed Ranma. They were 'destined' to be together.

"Urd, I finally found that pesky bug. It's in this room!" Skuld said, but before Urd could reply, she spotted the bug on the chest of the boy in the bed and yelled, "There you are!!"

At the same time when the Bug was hit, Ranma suddenly flatlined.

BeeeeeeeeeeeeeeBOOM!!

As the debugging took place, a strange thing happened. All the magic, all the meddling, all the chaos that was generated by the things in his life had come to bear fruit in Ranma's body. With the surge from Skuld's debugging hammer, the high level magics and spells that had affected his life and his previous lives exploded, completly engulping Ranma. All Skuld could say under Urd's glare was, "Oops!" They were astonished as they saw Ranma's body start to float and then vanish.

At the same time, Nabiki rushed into the room at the sound of the explosion. She prayed that Ranma wasn't at the center of this mess, he was still unconscious. Surely, the higher powers weren't that cruel to the bo.. No. With all of the crap that he went through, he was definitely a man and very old before his time. In the back of her mind, she wondered what would have happened if she was the one picked.

Author's note:

I know, Akane was in a bad light, but not too bad. She was just a spoiled brat. Ranma isn't really much better, but at least he does have good reason as to why he is that way in his WAY too interesting life.


	2. Chapter 1

CHAOS SQUARED - FIRST ARC

Changes

Chapter 1

In Asgard

Ranma was promptly dumped onto his back, "OWWW!" he yelped as his tail bone was promptly smashed against the hard ground. His first thought was, 'How come I didn't land on my feet?' The second thought was when he saw Nabiki falling down at him, "Oh shit, Nabiki!' and caught her.

There was a commotion around him and he looked around quickly to find... strange looking people.

There was a woman who walked up to them and said, "Saotome Ranma?"

Ranma nodded.

"I'm Belldanday, Goddess Second Class, Second Category, Limited, . Follow me. Kami-sama would like to meet you."

"... What about Nabiki?"

"Oh my, another person will take care of her."

"Who?"

"Her mother."

Ranma nodded and followed Belldandy. They were walking when he noticed that he had gotten different looks from others as they passed, like hositiity to lust to curiosity to indifference. Belldandy said, "Don't worry about it. You're the first one to get here via System Bug."

"System Bug?"

"Yes, my younger sister was chasing a System Bug..." the young girl with black hair in the background blushed, "...that was on your chest at the time and that caused you to go into cartiac arrest."

"What?! You mean I died!" Ranma exclaimed, "... Wait a minute, why am I talking better?"

She just smiled and held her hand to the door. Ranma understood, the answers would be waiting for him by Kami-sama Himself.

As he walked throght the door, what he saw surprised him. It was just like a normal office. A a few plants, a chair, and a man sittign behind a big desk. Ordinary enough.

When the man looked up, Ranma froze. In the man's eyes, he saw stars. He saw constallations. He saw the nevereding stretch of space itself. What broke him out of his reverie was when the man started to laugh.

"Ha, ha, ha, ha." Ranma looked a bit embarrassed at being caught staring, Kami-sama inclined his head and started, "Well, Ranma. It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

"Uh, my pleasure, sir." Ranma said, but felt a twing and thought, 'Something's wrong.'

"Oh yes, something is wrong." Ranma froze as He continued, "Yes, I can read you mind too. Right now, the doctors and nurses are trying to revive you from complications from the training trip and your body should get restarted right about now." Ranma suddenly felt a pull on him, but that was it as she continued, "The other reason why you are talking better is that the shiatsu points that your 'father' had put on you have been removed when your ki stopped flowing when you died and is now reset."

"What shiatsu points?"

"As you know, shiatsu is a very powerful on the human body. What happened was that your father 'found' and ancient scroll stating how to arrest or block certain things. One of those things, believe it or not, was to puberty."

Ranma's eyes went wide, "What?!" It did not look good to him.

Kami-sama sighed, "Well, let start at the beginning..."

At another place in Asgard,

A mother and daughter were hugging like there was no tomorrow. Nabiki said after the long hug, "I miss you, Mother."

"I miss you and everyone else too." Nabiki's mother said, "I'm sorry."

"Why?"

"For the trouble that I have caused." Nabiki was about to protest when she continued, "It's not dying. I knew that my time was up, but for the WISH."

"Wish?"

"Yes, a goddess came to me before I died and gave me a wish. I wished for my family to have happy lives and strong spouses, but something went wrong. It was only know when the System Bug was killed on Ranma and Ranma died that the wish problem became known."

"What went wrong?"

"It seems that the wish was processed, but not until later was it discovered that only partially done. Akane was the only one who received benefits. The WISH actually took your luck with Nabiki and Soun's and transferred it to Akane. Also, the Ultimate Force, the one force that drives the universe. The Ultimate Force cannot directly influence anyone, so it could do something like push a person on a different road by having an avalanche cover one road or have a large swarm of bugs push the person to a particular path. It made it so that Akane would have the best life and the strongest husband, so it used our family and the Satomes to fullfull it. It kept you at home for Akane's sake, you became the money-maker, Kasumi became the housewife and it forced Soun to be the nominal head. If any of you were to grow up and leave the house then Akane-chan would not get the best therefore all of you had to be sacrificed." Nabiki looked stunned as she continued, "You was supposed to work in working mangas, Kasumi was supposed to go into medicine, Soun was supposed to be a head of a prestigious Dojo, Akane was to marry Dr. Tofu because he couldn't tell Kasumi that he loved her. Also, he was also there to stop Akane from being attached to someone else. That is why the Satomes were also affected. Ranma was seen as the best choice, but too headstrong. He had to be 'controlled' so that Akane would have a good life."

"Controlled?"

"Akane's idea of a good life is to be in the limelight. Ranma was mainly there to back her up and be her outlet for her anger and insecurities."

"Mother..."

"Don't 'Mother' me because I saw what she did to Ranma. Her ability to hit Ranma and her ki-mallet was given to her by the Ultimate Force to control him. Heck, she lived with him, the Satome's were indebted to the Tendos since they didn't pay rent and had hot meals, and the Tendo-Satome Agreement were big things. The biggest occurred when Nodoka took Akane's side to be Ranma's bride and that only started because the Ultimate Force made Akane come at her very best.

"It made it very, very easy for Genma to steal and become lazy. Ranma suffered the most since he was to be 'strong', but had to be controlled by Akane. Situations like Genma 'finding' the Nekkoken Scroll and missing the last part because he was drunk and then getting pages that had the warning 'coincidentally' stuck together. He brushed off the fact that he put Ranma at age seven though the training schedule that he had when he was under Happosai when he was in his twenties, etc. His plan to take away Ranma's social aptitude to make him easier to control The fianc es, rivals, and unusual happeneings were part to get them together. Even Jusenkyo was part to keep Ranma in check. The biggest crime was when Genma used the shiatsu to stop him from going into puberty."

"WHAT!!" The yell could be hear all over Asgard.

Back in Kami-sama's office,

Kami-sama continued, "Genma blocked off the places where puberty would begin, but it wasn't really his fault." Ranma skeptically looked at Him, "An... interfering individual gave him the scroll and told him that you would learn better. Plus that it will let you focus more on martial arts than girls. Also, the Ultimate Force knew you would overcome this eventually, so it made an extra obstacle... brain damage in the area where puberty would have originated. Right now you are 17, but have not started puberty yet. Now that your ki had stopped for that brief moment, the blocks diappeared. The doctors are going to give you a full examination, find the damage and will be able to repair it." Before Ranma could question why, Kami-sama answered his question, "The main reason was to stop you from becoming close to a girl and away from him and Akane. It's only now that all of what you should have know has come together. Now that the block has been removed you are now experiencing what you should have known. Only here in Asgard will you experience what you SHOULD have been. When you go back, you will have to go through everything to learn how to be Ranma, the socialized person."

Ranma put his hand over his his bent head, "Didn't he realize that Mom would kill him for that. No wonder I had so much trouble and had been so clueless about girls and being too focused on Martial Arts." As this happened, his mind went back to the skimpy outfits of his fianc es and other girls and a sudden huge nosebleed launched him into the air and he knocked him out when he came down.

The gods and goddesses in Kami-sama's waiting are were startled when they heard Him laugh maniacally.

Kami-sama smiled as Ranma started to come too. He shook his head in sympathy because of what Ranma would experience now. Normally, once you are passed the age, you go through a mind mini-puberty. Ranma, on the other hand, will be get the full bout of it in a very short period of time as a legacy from the wish.

Ranma asked, "What happens now?"

"Well, " Kami-sama said, "You have some choices to make. The wish affected everyone in your life. Ryouga was taken care of by Akari." Ranma looked surprised, "Come on, how many girls out there who loves pigs, especially piglets and is really the only one to break Ryouga out of his obsession to Akane. His part was to keep you interested in Akane."

"The Kunos now will get help with their madness."

After a pause, He continued, "Ukyou's father will call her and tell her that he wanted her back. It seems that she left before he could tell her that he didn't care if she married Satome or not, but what happened was that later was that Genma returned the yatti."

Ranma stared in disbelief, "Returned?"

"Yes, it seemed that your father had a change of heart. Your father isn't ALL bad, just that he had a harsh life too and the Ultimate Force made being greedy and lazy so easy for him, otherwise these things would never have happened to you. Ukyou disappeared before her father could tell her. Miscommunication at its best. However, the Ultimate Force did some fancy changes so that he couldn't reach her until after the wedding. Shampoo would been killed because she failed to get you, but now will have something much worse. She will be an outcast from the Amazons because of 'politics'. It seems that Soap, the Hidden Weapon Mistress and Cologne's rival, enacted an obscure law that effectively stripped Cologne's family of their Amazon Heritage and all their possessions in the village. Shampoo will no longer have any reason to marry you now."

"Wow, that was harsh for Shampoo. I think that she has started to like Mousse."

"Indeed, it is bad, but things will be changing."

Ranma was surprised when he saw Nabiki coming in with a woman who he assumed was her mother. He couldn't help, but see that her mother resembled Akane and that dampened his spirits. He spoke to Kami-sama, "Why?"

"The wish that Mrs. Tendo had made has been removed, but it is up to you as to how it will proceed." Kami-sama said and held up a hand to forestall Ranma's question, "The wish affected you more than any other person. You went on an insane training trip, got ripped away from friends and family on a failed dream of your family, physically and emotionally suffered what no child should endure, got blamed by others for their own failings, and on top of that you got killed because some delusional people made by us. Throughout all this, you have persevered with a pure heart and made the most of your opportunities, even thought the Ultimate Force manipulated you on many occasions by dangling a cure in front of everyone's eyes." Ranma remained silent then nodded, "There are other... darker things you will find out, but it not the place for me to tell you."

They stayed back when Kami-sama said quietly, "Ranma, you have two choices. The first is to redo your life since the wish or to keep going with your old life. Both comes with consequences. If you choose to start over, you may not be as good as you are now in martial arts, but you will be more social. Events that had shaped your lfe will be different and therefore you may be different. You may or may not like what you will eventually become. The other is that you will be going through some changes that will probably get you into more trouble, but in the end everything will be alright."

As they all waited for his answer, Ranma looked at everyone else. Kami-sama was patiently waiting for his answer like Mrs. Tendo, but Nabiki had a gleem in her eye. He may have been dense, but he still recognized the look when she knew something. A look passed betwen them and Ranma made his decision...

Author's note:

I know, Akane was in a bad light, but not too bad. She was just a spoiled brat. Ranma isn't really much better, but at least he does have good reason as to why he is that way in his WAY too interesting life.


	3. Chapter 1b

CHAOS SQUARED - FIRST ARC

Side Story

Where Am I Now?

Two week ago.

The darkness was cloystering, thick as molasses and just as sticky. It also held terrors for him. Nightmares about the Nekkoken came back to him when he was in the pit of cccc...aaa...ttt...sss. He could see their red slitted eyes in the darkness, staring out at him and...hungry, very hungry. He tried to scream and get away from them, but couldn't. They closed in relentless as ever. Their claws cut deep as pain and terror became his whole world. They were demons a part of his broken psyche thought as they closed in even closer. The pain from their claws terring into his flesh as they tried to eat him alive...then...nothing again.

In intensive care, the others looked on. The plotting and scheming of the others more pronounce.

It was then that Dr. Mizuno on her name tag. Before the questions could really begin, a surprising a nurse that was overlooking him tripped with a cup of water and the inevitable happened. It spilled their drink on Ranma, changing him into a female. The reaction of the Crew were normal except Kodatchi.

The others had seen this before and Kuno spouted about seeing his pig tailed goddess again, but when Kodatchi saw it, but seem to disregard it like her brother.

Dr. Mizuno comment broke into his thoughts as she was fascinated and said, "Jusenkyo right?"

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kasumi's reaction as her eyes narrowed. Her facial expression and look had the quite distinctive look of disgust as if to say that he was a freak. This was a much more sincere look that the ones his fiancees gave him.

After a small interlude, the questions rained down on Dr. Mizuno. The very last answer stunned them all.

"Ranma has extensive damage by the sword and may never come out of the coma again. If he does then it he still may never walk again."

As the news sunk in, the doctor wondered where was his mother in all of this. She should have been here, but he didn't see her anywhere around.

"The boy will marry Akane and untie the families!"

"For honour of the Tendos, he will marry Akane!"

"The Vile Sorceror is now laid low by my majesty, the fair flower, Akane Tendo and my pig tailed goddess are now mine! Hahahahahahahaha!!!"

"So many pretty nurses."

"Where am I now!!" yelled Ryouga then backed off as everyone stared at him. He just appeared out of nowhere. "Oh..." in a small voice and saw Ranma.

"No, he marry Shampoo." and started forward. Cologne and Mousse were strangely silent. As if they were now spectators to what will happen.

3...

"Get away from my Ranchan, you hussy."

2...

"My darling Ranma, come back to me. You will get better. Hohohohoh!!"

1...

"Ranma no baka, this is your fault!!!"

0

More nurses were were called into there room as the Genma and Soun tried to take Ranma, Shampoo tried to take Ranma, Kodatchi tried to take Ranma, Akane and Kuno tried to kill Ranma.

"Airen." Shampoo said without real emotion.

"Ranma you baka! You stop flirting with them, you pervert!" said an ANGRY Akane, taking out the Mega Hammer. Oblivious to the fact that Ranma is now in a coma.

"Violet girl, you stop hurting Airen!" reluctantly, taking out her bonbori.

"That's right, you did enough already to my Ranchan!" remaining where she was and only saying it. Obvious lip service.

"I second that, the Rose of St. Herbeke!" as she twirled her ribbon menancingly, but only seemingly for effect.

A battle ensued as more and more of the combatants starting fighting and elbowing each other until just the nurse, Kasumi and Ranma were out of it. They did even notice when Kuno took out his sword that was painted as a bokken. They were mostly destroying their side of the room until a familiar battle cry was heard again,

"Ranma you baka, this is all your fault"

The fighters suddenly turned towards Ranma. This was enough for the other nurses who were drawn because of the yells and battle.

Kuno suddenly dipped his sword when saw the nurses and then said, "What visions of loveliness, my Nurses goddesses. I must have you all!! I, Kuno Takawaki, Blue Thunder of Furinkan High, will date all of thee!" as he produced a huge number of roses and the nurses a huge number of sweatdrops.

The nurses were thinking, "Who is this idiot."

Happosai took one look at the nurses and started to jump.

The Head Nurse on a small stick yelled, "Stop!!" Everyone froze and Cologne was stunned to see Ke Heem who was exiled from the their village.

Though Khun Lo made no acknowledgement of her, she was sad. Ke Heem and her relations was exiled forever from the Amazon village for...political reasons, even her contempt of Mousse had come from this. He was Ka Heem's last family member, but she remembered the tragedy.

In most warrior cultures, healers had very high status akin to the warriors. It was their job to keep the people healthy, also the greater the healer, the greater the respect.

In this Amazon culture, however, healers were generally taken for granted until in times of great strife or outbreak of disease when their services would have been greatly needed. It was true that they were respected, but in reality who would be remembered with greater respect in a WARRIOR culture, a great warrior or a great healer. It was true that many great healers were great warriors, but subtle and not so subtle their status as warriors won out. In the years that followed, the Council would truly see the extent of mistake because of their petty vengeance. The century of calm would erupt into chaos as old and new forces threaten their very existence.

The Musk, Bird People and especially the Communists attacked them relentlessly whittling down their numbers. It was the start of the Cultural Revolution and then the Great Leap Forward in China that the most damage would be done. Over this period of time, the Amazons would lose over nine tenths of their people in their bloodiest period of history.

Now there were slightly more than 30,000 Chinese Amazons left in three villages at the time Ranma would enter their main one. They had truly realized that their way of life would cease to exist because their numbers weren't growing. They were desperate for new blood, but old ways die hard and only a few made the cut despite their laws.

Status was one of perception. If you were beaten by 'accident' then your status declines accordingly, even if the male was very strong. The mere fact that a fully trained Amazon warrior made a mistake was almost unforgivable.

Healers at this time were trained, but none of them had the tradition that Ka Heem's family had. In the quest for warriors, they had focussed so intently on fighting that the healer's status actually declined as the warrior's increased. This took their toll as all of the young wanted to be warriors, but very few wanted to be healers. Also, many who went into the healing profession were failed warriors. Slowly and surely, there were less healers being trained and fewer attained their full potential in healing. Some would wonder why since healers were a vital part of keeping the culture alive, but it was really the politics that had changed. Healers were marginalized and the last of the great healing families were Kar Heem's who left.

Now, because of Ranma's crippled state, she knew that the Council would never accept him in to the tribe despite his bloodline. They had deep rooted prejudices against any disability. Heck, they believed that Ranma's win was purely luck because he was a male despite her report. She wasn't so blinded since she was there and had the fortitude to realize her mistake and realized at that point that the Council was afraid of Ranma. A bout of inspiration hit her when she put all the pieces of the puzzle together. The Council's worst fear, a superpowered male that wasn't under their contro. Not clouded by Amazon Law, she saw her mistakes that glared at back at her. The mistakes were so galling because she now knew how much she was blinded by some of the outdated Amazons ways for too long and prejudice. The simple fact that they treated him as a prize bull. He never trusted them, but then again how could he when they regularly drugged his food and threatened those around him with magic and violence. She shook her head. She really screwed up. A little more care and everything could have been resolved to both of their satisfaction. Had she been seen more as a wise type than a aggressive type, she could have nudged Ranma to see Xian Pu more as more than a violent girl and not be weary of her.

In a way, it was ironic that she was happy that this happened. He would never have been truly accepted in the village because he would never compromise his principles. Despite the great pressure on him here, he never bow down to anything or anyone who didn't EARN his respect. For that reason alone, it has truly made him a great person who had stood by his principles and not let others dictate to him thier own wishes.

He was also a warrior. It was true that he was arrogant and had a huge ego, but he was one of the best in his generation. He was also a true master of the Art and its harsh code that didn't fit in 'modern' society. She could see Ranma rebellion against the Council. Either he would he would have an 'accident' or he would be forced to leave.

Regrets.

She bowed her head as she acknowledged the truth. The more she was with Ranma, the more she saw why so many of the married men constantly ran away from the village. She saw it through the eyes of the women when she was at the Musk Citadel. The Must treated women like the Amazons were to men, as breeding stock. There were profound similarities to how the Amazons treated mostly outsider men, no matter who they were, made her shiver.

While the Musk were open about their oppression, the Amazons used it subtle and not so subtle ways. She still felt that women were the superior of the species, but was saddened by their casual use of brutality to the men. She winced again as she remembered the callous violence when a great many of the outsider men who were married were gravely injured or killed because their wives or other Amazons saw some transgression against their honour. To many Amazons, being alive or breathing was a transgression by men. It was very common for that to happen, almost a social sigma if the men didn't have any visible injury or limp. Unfortunately, it was increasing over the years as women lashed out at the outsider men when they were attacked by their enemies, most of which were men. She felt embarrassed as she remembered her approval to many of the young married Amazons to put the men in their place.

Just as the Wrecking Crew were about to disregard her and continue to fight, the head nurse said to the other nurses, "They all go. NOW!!."

The nurses acted instantly and after an ensuing battle, "punted" the Nerima Wrecking Crew out of the hospital. It was made clear to the nurses that these morons needed to be booted into the stratosphere. They tried to get in again and were promptly booted out. This time with extreme violence and to such as extent that even Happosai wouldn't be able to get in this time. The Wrecking Crew were made painfully aware of the reputation of the hospital called, The General Hospital. It was guarded by nurses who were very well versed in martial arts and high tech machines. Some even claim that they even do magic. Everyone of the Wrecking Crew were barred from the hospital because of the fight and extreme damage it caused, except Kasumi of course.

The hospital was said to be the best and the most heavily guarded. It was because of some of their exotic, but highly effective treatments and the security that the hospital became famous for. Prominent people such as rock stars, movie stars, politicians, and the wealthy from all over the would could come in for treatment and not be harassed by any paparazzi or press people while in the hospital.

It was made painfully clear that that none of them were permitted on hospital ground and no flights over the hospital were permitted because of the area. The hospital itself was in the intersecting area between Nerima, Juuban. Between crazed martial artists, Sailor Senshi and giant Mecha Robots, they have seen it all from high tech to hostile magic. Any flights over this particularly hostile space were promptly shot down by the craziness of the area.

The Wrecking Crew started to walk away and some uttering death treats against one Satome Ranma. The parting remarks, by the head nurse, was that the Tendo Dojo, the Neko Ken, Ucchan's and the Kunos will get the bill to fix the damages.

After that, it was anything but restful for the nurses after the ejection of the morons aka as the Nermia Wrecking Crew.

It was a day later that Ranma woke up and to find out about his condition. His recovery was incredible. Broken vertebra and upper legs with enough blood loss to kill anyone else on the spot. The tests they ran stunned them. In all their years, the doctors hadn't seen anyone with so many injuries. All his bones were broken more than once, he had substantial muscle and tissue danmage as well as ligament damage, and he had concussions. They still don't know HOW he survived such an ordeal or why he was still INTACT at all. To them, it defied anything they had ever known.

The realization of the extent of his injuries hit Ranma like a runaway train. It finally hit him that he couldn't move or even feel his legs or anything below his waist. Normally with an injury, he would brood and be as depressed as Ryouga and then try to overcome it. This was different. This might be a permanent condition and he had no idea of what he would do now that he was diminished in the Art.

As his life came rushing before his eyes, he truly felt that he was truly alone and without the Art. The first thing was shock then all of the stress from the craziness of his life came bubbling from the depths of his scarred soul to erupted in the form of a real scream. The first one in his entire life.

In all of the history of the hospital, the scream that ripped through the hospital would be remembered to all for the rest of their lives on par with the call for Armageddon. It was the scream like of one of the most condemned. The hurt, the sorrow, the frustration and the betrayal were so vibrant that the staff as well as the patients felt that they could feel it permeating their very being. Their pain forgotten for a moment, silence encompassed the hospital as everyone froze in disbelief then a violence ensued from one part of the hospital.

In the true fashion of repressed feeling erupting, Ranma basically went crazy. Not accepting, cannot accept that his injury would make him weak. Made him prop himself up and try to move out of bed.

In these situations, the nurses should have left him alone to come to terms with it, but no. They had to interfere and he turned his anger at them as they tried to hold him down.

Even though his body and ki were exhausted, adrenaline fuelled his rampage. Also despite having useless legs, he had more than enough strength and skill to taken on more than 10 nurses at one time. In other words, he adapted. Weapons were strewn all around, swords, knives, bedpans and chairs as the nurses became frustrated as their intention to restrain became to dish out as much bodily punishment as possible.

Ranma, despite his injury, was literally raised for battle. He had trained if one or more parts of his body were disabled which included his eyes, ears and all four limbs. Unfortunately, he only really used it consciously when he was in a battle. That's why he didn't really adapt when Dr. Tofu paralyzed his legs.

It wasn't until the head nurse came and waited patiently for her chance to knock him out. She was impressed at his sheer training and ability. She was even more impressed that even in his diminished condition, he had been able to take on a great many of the nurses without hurting them. She could detect more than 100 styles that melded into a single flowing style.

He was tiring as the adrenaline rush was ebbing and he was using too much of the little chi he still had. Despite that, he pushed himself onward. She was surprised that he lasted this longer in his condition. By all rights, he should have passed out long ago. She had to take him out quickly before he totally exhausted himself. She had seen something like this only once and that person had died.

Dr. Mizuno was there. He knew what was happening and was berating himself at not seeing it sooner. He did the one thing that the nurses thought was suicidal, he stepped in front of Ranma. To everyone else's surprise, Ranma hesitated as tears started to fall from his eyes.

The Head Nurse then saw her chance as he hesitated and pressed the sleeper point. The nerve point that was above the affected area. The remaining nurses were looking angrily at him, but didn't do anything from the glare of the head nurse. She told them to forget the incident. Arguments came from the nurses.

"What?!! He nearly killed me!" A nurse with two large bruises on her shoulder and hip from his palm strikes.

"Look at what he did to our sisters."

"Yeah..." another nurse that was getting groggingly off the floor.

A hand from Dr. Mizuno stopped the argument. She patiently explained, "If I hadn't intervened, he could have possible beat all of you." She continued with a pointing finger, "Even in his madden state, I didn't see him once cripple or kill any one of you, only disable. Don't kid yourself, he was fully able to permanently cripple or kill you at any time."

Silence then gasps and more gasps accompanied that statement.

"He couldn't.."

"No way!!"

"I know him. He is...was the best. Even without both of his legs still defeated you without resorting to any of his LETHAL moves. A little more force and most if not all of you would have died." said Dr. Mizuno. She had known about Ranma from her vice, mangas. She thought that all that in the manga was made up until she met the local Nerima practitioner, Dr. Tofu. He showed her that such things weren't stories like their Sailor Senshi.

All arguments abruptly stopped when she pointed to places around the room where bent and broken weapons. Tempered steel crumpled like tissue paper and hole sized palm prints in the walls around the room. Seeing the sheer carnage that could have happened if he had intended to kill or even seriously hurt them. Too many things happened so fast that they didn't notice it. They had a lot to think about as they filed out. He could have done serious damage, but didn't.

Although, the situation called for restraints, the doctors and the head nurse felt that it was unnecessary. Ranma seemed to have spent his rage. There were token restraints just to make the nurses happy. This was how it went for a week until they felt that the need for show was past, but Ranma was still brooding.

As the chaos that had been Nerima calmed down as people took a hard look at exactly who was responsible for the damage that occurred. It was true that Ranma was always a part of it, but looking at the bigger picture EVERYBODY around him could be held accountable. The fights by Ranma's rivals, the schemes of Nabiki, the truly major damages that occurred when Akane blamed Ranma for things he never did and getting Ryouga involved in most of the fights that did the most damage. Ranma was their scapegoat until now.

Ranma was a person with deep contrasts to them even in his short stay already. The nurses who was hostile to him after the fight couldn't hold those feelings for him after some of his crazy life story filtered through from Nerima to them. The curse, multiple fiancees, a martial arts prodigy with the idiot for a father who started the mess and his enemies who were still trying to get in to finish him off that were normal everyday occurrences.

Many were sceptical of many of the other stories in his life until they heard of a particular idiot bokken wielder who spouts poetry and who says that the "vile villian Satome has enchanted Tendo Akane and his pig tailed goddess". That indeed fits the description of the idiot. Despite their oath not to kill, it was hard for them when the insane Kendoist would go on his monologue of bad poetry and trying to get in to kill Ranma at the same time.

The truly hardened ones paled when they found out about Ranma's 'unfortunate' conditions. The first was the Jusenkyo curse, in that he changed into a beautiful redhead and the 'other' condition much more serious condition, the Neko Ken. When it was confirmed, alarms went off and they immediately tried to get all cats or cat like objects out of the hospital. It was an especially hard situation for them because of the tragic results that happened nearly fifty years ago.

The patient, a child of ten, was rushed to the hospital, but no one knew what had happened to the child or the affects were until it was too late. Five died. Four swat team members and the child.

The nurses on the shift and the last member of the five man swat team would never forget the look the child had made at them, the look of "please kill me and end my suffering" when the child actually came out of it for just a second.

The swat member had never hesitated and killed the child.

The nurses found out later that, after the incident, he quit the force altogether and moved to the Canada.

They knew the training method. Wrap a child, preferably before seven years old in fish and sausages and then throw the child into a pit of starving cats. Everyone knew that only an complete and utter idiot would train anyone in the Neko Ken. The trade offs weren't worth it. The wielder became extremely powerful, but completely insane and extremely dangerous. That isn't including that the technique could easily defeated because it would be easy to distract the wielder. Most who underwent the Neko Ken died. The few who survive become feral and couldn't be broken out of that state after the training. Ranma was the only one to break out of it and to stay sane for over ten years was truly remarkable.

When he exhibited signs of fearing cats and still was sane, many of them were in awe of him because, if the rumours were true, he had it since he was six years old. Stories that lingered at that particular event were gruesome to say the least. There were quite a few nurses who, given the chance, would like to personally beat the stuffing out of Ranma's father.

Over the two weeks, the entire staff found Ranma to be an extraordinary individual because they got only a small taste of his life. It took all of their will to not kill or at least induce serious bodily injury to the mostly clueless people who keep on attacking him, be it enemy or fiancee. There was also the trading cards and manga that the children had that was just similar to be just a coincidence.

As time went on, they found it hard to tell the difference between his enemies and fiancees on many occasions. The crazy thing was that they kept on blaming him for all the things that went wrong in their lives even though they did it themselves. The nurses had to shake their heads at so much hopes and cluelessness surrounding him.

They found that Kuno wouldn't leave them alone. They knew about his curse, but it was just unbelievable to them that even when he changed, Kuno changed from trying to kill him to trying to marry him and Akane and them and whoever he fixated upon. They found his enemies, except Kuno in disarray. Ryouga and Mousse were unsure, now that Ranma was injured. Even when they uttered death threats, they never really expected him to lose. Happosai, they could take care of.. Also after the initial bout with Kuonji Ukyou, the Amazons and the Tendos, they never came back except Kasumi, of course.

It was at this time that things were going to turn for the worst. The biggest threat was the one thing that Ranma couldn't fight back on even if he regain the use of his legs at that instant. This would be his largest and hardest challenge and he was going to have to do it from his hospital bed.

Author's note:

Ranma in real pain. The others don't care at all at how he feels, but their own needs. For here, it gives him time to heal from his life and what has happened to him.

Some of the problems he will begin to figure out. The manga and other things are only the tip and it is their confidence in his inability to do anything non physical that will be their downfall. He is learning and adapting to use his head instead of his fists or feet which WILL make him truly dangerous to them.

Rumiko Takahishi was seen by some as a feminist work and that Akane was an empowered female. In some ways, I agree with that. She was independent and go after what she wants. On the other hand, she gets SO many breaks from the others against Ranma that it becomes ridiculous.

Takahishi also vented the absurdity about men and Japanese society, but I found that no man in the story had been given any sort of serious dealings. Maybe Dr. Tofu who was more "normal" than the rest, but the he disappeared when the author cut him out. She didn't even give him a decent reason write out. The men were seen as clowns. The women, no matter what they did, were always forgiven. Compared with what happened to the men, no females were ever reprimanded greatly for any of their failed schemes or mistakes. This was especially prevalent for Akane, who blamed Ranma for any transgressions whether deserved or not.

A prime example occurs when Akane accuses Ranma of doing something perverted or is a pervert because Shampoo or Ukyou bringing him lunch and then insults the Shampoo and Ukyou by calling them bimbos. She is the one who starts out the yelling match. It is almost inevitable that Ranma gets the blame and the girls then just leave.

Another example occurs when he had, by circumstances, decided to eat at Ucchans and let Akane cool off (when Akane called him a pervert for things that happen everyday with him and gives him the cold shoulder) with his LEGITIMATE fiancee. Akane had the gall to get angry at him when he doesn't come back to her. Who in their right mind would want to stay with he when she smashes him emotionally. Obviously Ranma since it happens more times then he could probably count.

My big peeve is that Ranma gets in trouble for things that are not his fault or was not even taught to him. EVERYONE knows how he was brought up with TOTALLY no social skills and Akane was the opposite in KNOWING them, YET they give AKANE the slack when she abuses Ranma and blame RANMA when with something that was not his fault.

It must be said that this happens less in the later volumes of the manga series, but it is still there in the anime. Overall, who was on Ranma's side when all of this stuff happened to him? No one, especially not his parents.

Anyone else would be outraged, but who had taken his side to say that he had the RIGHT to eat where he liked. Who defended him when he was FORCED to eat Akane's cooking by EVERYONE since they didn't want to hurt her feelings or be in traction for months at the hospital?

The answer is no one.

It was a very typical thing for her to do. The times when AKANE breaks the engagement and should shoulder the dishonour for the non committed transgression, who is blamed by everyone. Who is demanded by HONOUR to take the brunt of the dishonour for breaking the engagement, yet PRESSURED for the engagement be reinstated and APOLOGIZE for his faults? Who does all the work to get back the engagement?

Ranma, NOT AKANE, was the one to do it.

An incident comes to mind, it was the things that AKANE did FIRST for Shampoo just glomping him. Yet, she denies that she cares. Worse was that she then insults Ranma and throws water on him when Shampoo was with him to change him into the girl and Shampoo into a cat. She knew full well at that point that he didn't want to be in his cursed form and of his fear of cats. That was just plain mean. I think she said he deserved it for two timing her.

Why is it a ROMANTIC comedy. Comedy, I can see, but definitely not ROMANTIC. It seemed that she took pity on the characters and gave them the 'almost' wedding after all the things she did to get them together. I do feel that actually no one else had a chance at Ranma except Akane.

I had a suicide episode in it, but a friend told me that Ranma would have tried to overcome his injury, so I took it out. 


	4. Chapter 2

CHAOS SQUARED - FIRST ARC

Chapter 2

In Need

Present

It was Dr. Mizuno who phoned Dr. Tofu and explained what happened. He came right away to see Ranma and was shocked when he found out the circumstances surrounding this latest trip to the hospital. To him, Ranma was indestructible, but see him like this shook his faith in humanity.

It was Dr. Tofu who explained to Ranma what happened.

He was found in Juuban and rushed here with life threatening injuries. It was a miracle that he wasn't outright killed. The damage itself would have killed an ordinary person immediately.

When Ranma woke up and was told of this... It wasn't good. Depression had followed quickly. With his energy spent, he could imagine the life he could lead now. Sure he could be an excellent martial artist, but...not the best anymore. Time had passed with agonizing slowness for him as he was lying on his bed in a dark. His mood was at best called depressed. Staring at the ceiling in contemplation, he looked upon it's blank surface and found his life was like that. It had given him nothing but trouble that included everyone in his life. His father who was a greedy lout, his mother with the ridiculous seppuku contract who willingly gave him up to his father knowing that something bad would happen, Ukyou and Shampoo who only see their honour, Kasumi who had always had a faint disapproval and accidents that alway happen around him, his enemies who are so clueless and Akane who put him in this situation in the first place. The only person who he even had a mediocre amount of respect was Nabiki. Of course Kasumi made what they had better, but it was Nabiki who got her the money. She did see him as a cash cow, but at least he knew where she was coming from. The others all hid their own agendas while trying to marry or kill him or both.

He found it both surprising and not that Kasumi was the one who visited him. She was the only one who wouldn't start a fight, but ironic because she was in fact disgusted at him. She did disguise it through the vapid smile of hers, but it was clear to those who knew her. Though infrequent, he was still grateful for the company. She seemed to know when to talk and when to be quiet in silence. She had told him the truth at what happened, but not all of it. He sensed that she held back a lot of information like Nabiki. He had a distinct feeling that she had more to do with what happened than most people suspected.

The few times that he did see Nabiki... some look passed between the three of them and even if he didn't really know what it was he remembered it and was uneasy with Kasumi for some reason.

After that time by an unspoken pact, they didn't speak anymore of the people who did this to him, but only used small talk. The subject was too touchy and he as time went by he was starting to appreciate the use of small talk.

From the first moment he woke up from being sedated, his whole life seemed to fall apart.

The first was a letter with the letterhead was that of Kuonji Okonomyaki Enterprises. Mr. Kuonji, himself, wrote that he was breaking the engagement now that Ranma was unfit to be with his daughter. He stated in no uncertain terms that he considered the engagement to be a mistake. He wouldn't marry his daughter to a crippled and useless person like him. He also fully expected to be compensated for the loss of the yatti. He wanted one hundred million yen and would take him to court to get it when he left the hospital. Even though he did renounce his daughter, he always kept the door open if he failed the engagement. She would be taken care of. He also added the name of a fiancee she had picked after his injury, an up and coming lawyer who works for him.

If he hadn't read Mr. Kuonji's letter first, he wouldn't have any idea that she was rich. She didn't even have the decency of sending him... what do you call it...a 'Dear John' letter. It hurt him that he confided so much to her and that she didn't do the same for him. He did kind of expect it, but it hurt nevertheless.

When Kasumi told him that she did hear from Mrs. Saotome, she didn't feel it was right to say 'Auntie' since the Ranma's injury. She said his mother still loved him and would like to visit him later when she was getting over this incident. This would have finished him because she should have come if she cared, but he detected something that didn't ring true when she said it. Her aura clearly showed that she was lying, but for what reason? Alarm bells went off in his head because he could tell that things were started to happen. It made no sense to him. Other than the fact that his mother had never contacted him even once since he was awake. Some of the nurses gave him a sad look when visiting time went by. She wasn't on the list of restricted people, so she should have been here to comfort Ranma when she learned of it.

The only real good thing was the letter from Cologne. She formally stated that if he was "disabled" then he was unworthy for her tribe and therefore the Kiss of Marriage was to be nullified. There would be no loss of honour for Shampoo. It also continued that she, Shampoo and Mousse would be leaving Japan soon. Shampoo is eager to see her homeland again, but return to see his progress. The decision would be made then about the Kiss of Marriage. There was a post script in a more mellow tone, she stated that she was sorry about the trouble and hoped him well.

Even though he didn't want to be an Amazon, he felt angered at the presumption that he was no longer of value. Without the Amazon Law interfering, he could feel from the letter that Cologne was saddened at his situation. In the tone under the letter, he could feel her tell him that she was sorry at her actions.

What really blew Ranma away was a week later when, out of the blue, Ryouga came to the hospital. Ranma as was the nurses was expecting some major damage to the hospital, but Ryouga, very strangely, said calmly that he had news to tell Ranma. The very seriousness of Ryouga's voice had let Ranma know that this was for real. Stupified would have been a very accurate word to describe what Ranma was feeling. Ryouga never wanted to talk at all, he just wanted to fight. .It was at that time that Sasuke showed up after that and apologized about what Kuno had done.

As he looked at Sasuke Sarugalane, he couldn't help but wonder at the small ninja. At first, he thougth that Sasuke had the physical ability, but not the mental one to be a truly good ninja. All of his plans to do Ranma in failed spectacularly. This sentiment changed when he lived with him and the Tendos after the Kunos tossed him out. When Sasuke had proper sleep and meals, he looked less spaced out and gained a professionalism to his stance and demeanor. The outrageous demands of the Kuno family day and night and his grubby meals had left him tired and malnourished.

It was after Sasuke's time with the Tendos that Ranma helped him out. When he would go on assignment and try to kill Ranma, Ranma would secretly feed him and let him sleep a bit. He still failed to kill Ranma, but it was more like a game to them. Kuno really didn't seem to care about it after Sasuke came back. Their concern for Kuno increased when Sasuke told Ranma of Kodatchi's new drugs that drove Kuno even more insane. It was at a particular bad episode when Dr. Tofu had to be summoned to Kuno when both of them agreed to try to help Kuno.

Snapping back into reality, Ranma asked, "By the way, I thought Kuno has stopped taking Kodatchi's drugs."

"He did, but she was putting in a new type that I didn't know until it was too late." replied Sasuke mournfully.

"I still don't know why he just doesn't get out of there?"

"It was a strict condition placed there to have any money from the Kuno fortune. Initially, she wanted it to be until he married, but his father, thankfully, overruled it and said at age eighteen was it. In addition, his mother stipulated that it was to protect him from outside influences'. What she really wanted was to control the Kuno family and both Master Kunos were it."

It was then that Ranma asked him to wait. Puzzled, he did as he was told. Ranma whisphered something to the nurse. She went and came back a few minutes later with a big bag and gave it to him.

"Here." Ranma said.

"What is it?" Sasuke asked.

"Open it."

Sasuke did and was amazed, he had never seen so much food in his life. Some were sandwiches, others were tins, etc, and a can opener. He looked up and didn't know what to say.

Ranma smiled, he remembered when Sasuke left the Kunos and told his story.

"If anyone needed a break, it would be him." Ranma thought.

"It's for you. I know that the Kuno's aren't feeding you, so take some food home." Ranma said.

"..." in surprise. Sasuke hadn't thought that he would remember considering what he had gone through. The expression on Ranma's face was one of open honesty and Sasuke couldn't help but look at the food longingly.

He took the food and bowed with a smile on face and was away.

"Come by anytime, when you need some help!" called Ranma at the retreating figure.

Ryouga looked at Ranma in surprise. It showed fully on his face. He never thought he would see Ranma do that. He looked around and saw that no one else showed surprise. He was surprised that Ranma spoke better without tasting his foot and his well thought out gift to Sasuke. Even he forgot that the ninja was always ignored by the Kunos. It seemed that only Ranma remembered. There was much to consider. He didn't envy his position of the bearer of bad news.

They resettled into his room. Ryouga on the chair with Ranma on the bed. There was an akward silence as no one wanted to be the first. He hesitated because...there was something different about him today. No cries for him to die, no saying that he made him see hell. Ryouga was just sitting there...quietly. It became too much and Ranma started.

"Ok, Ryouga, why did you come here today? I thought I was your enemy? Where was the "Ranma Saotome, prepare to die!" or the "Ranma, I've see hell because of you!."

Ryouga was looking away while he answered in a strange contemplating voice. The voice was unlike the depressed young man that he always had. It was like he was waking from a very bad dream and finding out that it did happen, "Well, it was like this. It all started about a week after the, ahh..."

"Incident?"

"Yeah," Ryouga smiled sheepishly, "...incident. I was getting trying to get to the Tendo dojo, but ended up in Tokyo."

Ranma ignored the opening to snicker that he got lost again. Something told him that it would be very important and it would also be rude of him to do that. Enough nurses had given him grief, but it was Kasumi's annoyed looks that was the worst he ever felt when he couldn't control his mouth. The latter was the deciding factor that had finally gotten drilled into him that he had to definitely think before he spoke.

Ryouga started, "The first was the time of your injury..." Looking at see a reaction from Ranma, but seeing none, "...I know how short tempered she was and impulsive, but when she stopped and waited for her chance to mallet you when you were almost out of it was dishonourable. I didn't realize it at the time, but that was when I started falling out of love with her."

Ryouga continued in a sad voice, "I was in a park when I heard a voice. I turned around to see Akane..." and looked a Ranma's face which remained impassive.

Flashback a day after the "incident".

He wandered out of somewhere and found himself in a park. He realized where he was when he recognized the Imperial Palace. He turned around and from some outcrops of trees, he saw Akane. It was at that point that he thought she had seen him and was waving to greet him. He was mistaken, just as he was starting forward through the trees when another figure came towards her. He was frozen in shocked when he saw them embracing like long lost lovers.

All he could see of Akane was that she had such a happy smile. It was a smile that lit up her whole face as it burned his heart into ashes. Her smile was unlike any other smile he ever saw. It was one he had never seen one like it towards a human before. One of pure joy with not one trace of the anger she always had. He only intruding thought was that the only time he saw one close to it on Akari was when she saw him in his cursed form.

"Gosh, it's been so long." the guy said. He even though could see only the back of his head, he thought the guy sounded familiar, but couldn't place him.

"Yes, it has." Akane said with a twisted smile., "One whole week."

"Now, now, none of that." he said with a shaking finger at her.

"Gomen," she smiled and then did something completely amazing. She didn't pull out her mallet and actually didn't get at all angry with this stranger. Ryouga was totally amazed. He knew many of her faults, but he never saw her not get angry about little things. When she usually did, everyone got hurt except Kasumi, Nabiki or Ranma's mother. The voice was also getting more familar, but with his head turned around, he still couldn't see his face.

"So, how was it? Did you have any trouble getting out?"

"No, my father thinks that I'm on a trip to Juuban."

"I know, but we have to start telling about us. Sneaking around for the last year and a half made me feel uneasy. I mean, you were engaged..."

"That's 'were', not now. I'm still trying to find the right time to do it. They are still scheming to get Ranma to marry me. (shutter) I mean, to that pervert (she makes a face). It's all his fault that he got hurt. Shampoo and Ukyo would agree with me."

"Now, now, he's in the hospital. I may not have liked him too much, but he seemed like a good guy. You told me that he was hit the wrong way in a fight and he's paralyzed."

"Right."

"Let's get something to eat. Sad stories make me depressed, Honda."

"Sure" and they walked away hand in hand.

He knew that she did indeed fall in love with him even though she knew him less than she had known him. A strange flickering thought pass through his dense skull. A thought so outrageous that it couldn't possibly happen that he felt compelled to think it out, even if he dismissed it later. What he saw was the 'sweet Akane', but with a huge difference. She never got angry. What if had been all an act? If it was all an act then was she fooling just Ranma and their parents or was it more?

End of Flashback

Ryouga said quietly, "It gets worse."

The temperature had been steadily dropping and ice could be seen forming on the windows as he tried to get a hold of his raging emotions by using the Soul of Ice. Ranma looked down his mind in whirl and with clenched fists he fought back the tears. He wanted to yell that Ryouga was a liar, but he knew that he wasn't. Ryouga loved Akane and never once had I seen him lie. Stretch the truth to make it his fault, but not with Akane.

Ryouga started, "It was when I was with Akane..."

Flashback

The same day in the afternoon in an far away ice cream shop. He was in his pig form and cursing Ranma, carrying his backpack. He was running from some restaurant owner who wanted him for lunch. He slipped into an open back door and under some bench seats in a stall broken stall and...found himself in a dark closet.

Opening the closet, he nosed out into a dark hallway. The place was huge. He realized that it was a mansion. As he looked around, he realized that something was familiar. It wasn't until he heard voices that he realized what it was. It was smells. The distant voices seemed to mesmerize him and drew him nearer and nearer until he recognized the voices. Akane, Ukyo, Shampoo, Kodatchi were there, but also...Kasumi, Nabiki and Auntie Saotome and... an unknown person that he found out later as Honda Jo. The screen door was partly open so that he could spy inside and what surprised him was the emblem on the wall. It was the Meiji Crest. It struck him that he must be in the Meiji Mansion. One of the most powerful families in the whole of Japan.

He heaved a sigh of relief and was about to announce his presence when he heard another door open, a female ninja with the Meiji Crest come forth. Auntie Saotome said to give them the usual and they all agreed.

Ryouga was shocked. Ranma's mother was from the Meiji Clan, but was forced to take the Saotome name when she married Genma as not to stain their honour. That was the first shock, but it seemed that it wouldn't be the last.

At first he thought this was the gathering of the fiancees to try to help Ranma. He was half right. He was totally shocked when he heard what was happening. He had always thought the fiancees disliked each other, but he feeling that he was about to hear something that would change his life.

It was obvious from the small talk that they knew each other very well. Honda got up and make his apologies when his cell phone went off and had to leave.

"I'm sorry Auntie Saotome, urgent business has come up." Honda bowed very low, "I must again give my gratitude for your cure of my condition. Arigato." and he bowed again.

"Think nothing of it, " said Auntie Saotome with an almost imperceptible bow of her own.

Ryouga was totally surprised by what he said. It seemed impossible that his memory loss and mysterious cuts could have been cured so quickly. Yet, it seem to hav been. Even with that, he could feel many things left unsaid and acknowledged.

When Honda left, Shampoo spoke up, "Very nice man, I would like to get to know him better."

"Shampoo..." said Akane.

"Don't worry. I'm just surprised that you didn't say anything about meeting a hunk like that."

"Well, I didn't know how it would have turned out and didn't want anything to screw it up."

Everybody nodded at the thought of the crazy things that seemed to happen to them.

A small silence ensued and the shock on Ryouga's face became like a facefault. Shampoo was speaking very good Japanese, perfect in fact.

"So, you got tired of the bimbo routine?" asked Ukyo, sounding as if she was trying to change from a very touchy subject to more neutral ground.

"Yes. I only do it for the others to get them off my back. It pays to make the Elder think that they are so smart that they tend to blind them at times. Also, they don't you push as hard when they think your are a bimbo." another sigh and she mimics, "Mousse is still after his 'darling Shampoo.' He gets so predictable it's annoying and he also cramps my social life."

"I thought Mousse would have gotten over his obsession with you by now."

"So did I. I liked him as a friend even though I treat him badly, but not as a husband. I knew him when we were very young. Mousse had a very hard life because he was a male and of his eyesight. I am really sick of him because of his constant 'Shampoo my love!!'" as she mimicked him, "If had been able to overcome his eyesight problem then maybe I would have let him marry me, but he didn't and I don't want my children to go through what he did. The pathetic ways he has would have made me a laughing stock in the village. Hah, like I would stand for that. Yeah, what girl in her right mind would waste her time with the blind village idiot....

"The problem is now that he doesn't get the hint that I don't want him around. He still does and it irritates the heck out of me that I beat him up. He has potential, but he never used any of it." Shampoo shrugged, "Anyway, I was seeing someone else at the village and didn't want to upset him and get him more obsessive so that I will have to kill him."

There was a profound pause as the others digested that bit of information.

"I thought you wanted to marry Ranma?" asked Akane.

"Only because of that stupid law. It should have been taken off the books for the longest time, but the old bags of the council wouldn't hear of it. What's the big deal to them that you do get a strong husband, they are harder to control. Now that Ranma is crippled, he don't count anymore. Ryouga too. Men outside the village are just too pathetic." Shampoo then made a face to show her disgust.

Another silence.

A sudden thought passed through Ryouga and shivered, Shampoo going after him, but would have probaly have him clean the latrine with his tongue and make him like it.

Ukyo asked, "Who is the guy that you like?"

Ryouga heard the smile in Shampoo's voice, "I'm not telling." As a wave of relief fell over him because it wasn't him.

"Mousse has some good points and the surgery or contact lenses, he would make a very good husband and trying to tone him down could work..."

"I hear a 'but' in there."

"My father would want me to marry someone else to strengthen our family. The obsessiveness of Mousse could be an asset, but most of his actions would have embarrass my entire family."

"What? I thought you had to marry Ranma."

"I did, but now that he is unable to fulfil his obligation, my father will void the agreement. He always thought it was a mistake, but would never admit that he was wrong. He wanted revenge on the Saotomes, but could never find them. His agents found that they moved around too much and couldn't pin point them for any length of time. I was the one he wanted to go and get revenge on the Saotomes. That's why he trained me so hard. No one knew and changing into a boy made it easier for me to get into some of the martial arts clubs.

"I'm glad the agreement is gone. He was a cute kid when we were young, but Ranma is a jerk with his macho and very immature attitude that I don't even like him anymore..."

"I agree, he is so very immature. I detest him because he is a mere commoner...."said Kodachi.

"Definitely." said Akane, "I call him a pervert all the time, but I don't really hate him. His ego grates on me. I was the best before he came and now I am the best now. His girl form was even prettier than me!! If it wasn't for the engagement, I would have thrown him out long ago."

Repeated shocks for Ryouga made him still as a statue.

As she said that, her eye starts twitching in a way that makes everyone at the table start to be weary of her, but it was the visible aura that they all felt that made them back away from her. The rest thought the same thought, she was hiding her real hate for him.

After some time passed, Kodatchi said, "My brother could best you in a fight.".

"No he can't. I think that I am just as fast and strong and fast as Ranma was thanks to Auntie Saotome and he doesn't even know it. I even know of the Umisenken thanks to her" Akane actually smiled a smile of satisfaction, "I was the one holding back when we 'sparred'. That's why I can hit him. I just smack him when he says he's better than me and then I go to my room to laugh because I am just as good as he is. So, I am still the best. Besides, he a wimp on anything but the physical."

Ryouga looked shocked. If Auntie Saotome taught Akane the techniques then why did she seem like she was always losing? Just to get him mad?

Or force Ranma to act and maybe get injured or killed?

Into the silence, Auntie Saotome suddenly laughed. It wasn't a happy laugh as a smug laugh.

The others were looking at her strangely when she got under control. She said, "Sorry about that, I was just thinking back to the wedding when I helped you two make the bombs for the wedding and where they should be thrown to the best effect." and then they all laughed.

"Yes, I enjoyed using my store of powders. They were gathering dust and taking up room in my lab." said Kodatchi.

"Why do you even have them?" asked Ukyou, curiously.

She shrugged, "It's a hobby. That and the drugs are a way to make my brother do what I want."

After some thought and a connection made, Ukyo asked, "Does that mean that the morning fights were by you?"

"Yes, Kasumi said that Akane needed more sparring partners to work out her frustrations upon, so I thought my brother could help her out. I just suggested to him that she is a delicate flow and he shouldn't hurt her because he's from an old samauri family, but that only that she should be defeated in battle like a warrior."

"Why did you attack me then during the Gymnastics Competition?" asked Akane.

Kodatchi gave her the look of 'don't be an idiot', "Competitions are different and I had to keep up appearances. I do have a reputation to upkeep with the other girls of St. Herebeke."

A huge shock to Ryouga. Kodatchi sane and scheming with the others. He was so wrapped up in this that he lost the first part of what Ukyo said.

"Kasumi, Auntie Saotome, I'm still surprised that the plan worked." said Shampoo.

"Why not?" asked Kasumi with Auntie Saotome looking onwward.

"Because...usually something comes and mucks up our plans to hurt Ranma."

Akane and the rest nodded in agreement.

"I can't believe that Auntie Saotome would do it against her own son..." thought Shampoo, "It doesn't seem right, despite him being a...male. He didn't stand a chance against them, people he trusted. I feel that he should have deserved more of a chance.

"All in all, I don't think it was Ranma himself she was trying to punish. She felt betrayed somehow and it definitely wasn't by Ranma. I wonder what it is about him that set her off..."

"He deserved it." said Auntie Saotome with a sneer and a look of righteous anger. "Look at how unmanly he was. He is unworthy of even being a Saotome, never mind a Meiji. Honourless."

"I agree." said Kasumi with the same look. "Especially the breaking of the Tendo family honour." Completely ignoring the fact that it was Akane who broke the agreement.

"Yeah." said Akane a little lost in thought, "But the baka couldn't decide who he wanted, so he gets no one with all our honour intact. Who cares about the jerk, even his mother didn't want him. The guy who got her pregnant disappeared. She always blamed him for Ranma though. That's the reason why she married Genma. Genma was friends with both of them and also nothing like the guy."

A silence.

Ryouga could only to shake her head. A smirk as he thought of Ranma's life was worse than his.

"I can't believe that Ms. Hinako sensi didn't want to be in on it. Ms. Saotome pointed out to her that she needed to relax. Ms. Hinako even admitted that the only really did was when she drained people, so I made Ranma late." said Akane with an evil smile, "She even thanked me after, but she said she felt guilty doing it. I just told her I just make his useless person useful."

A truly comfortable silence from the others at that comment.

"I have to admit that Ranma had become honourless when he couldn't decide who he wanted. Honour dictates that he choose, but he didn't. Besides, I was only there because it was in character and for fun. I was bored with the 'perfect woman routine'. I could do more crazy things and get away with it. They bother a woman less if they thought she was a little crazy." Kodachi put in as she smiled, trying to break the silence.

"He's not dead, only crippled. Like anyone will take him anymore. I knew I could do it. The baka thought that he could best me could he. It should have been away from Nerima, but when the opportunity came, I had to take it. Any of you could have done it also. I have to admit, I was aiming for his little used part, his head. I was sure I would have killed him, but it still puzzles me how I just missed." said Akane.

"You said it." said Ukyo, "Besides, I'm only here to get back my family's honour that the 'male' part of the Saotome ruined. The jerk left me and now he must pay. I have to thank you Auntie Saotome for the idea you had given my father for revenge. The letter will be sent off right away. Besides, this is much better to get back at them for what they put me through, revenge on the clueless."

"Well, I guess your right." said Shampoo. " Still, I think he deserved more of a chance. Despite him being a male, he was still a warrior. I think that even I would have cracked long ago under his pressure. If he had been more mature, I would have had second thoughts about this whole thing, but he wasn't. Only the same thing happened with Great grandmother like Mr. Tendo and Mr. Kuonji. They tried to slap up together with this archaic views of what marriage was and it didn't work..."

There was a grim silence that was broken when Akane said, "The baka deserved it." The nods from Auntie Saotome and Kasumi sealed the sentiment.

"So, when are your going to introduce Honda back to Mr. Tendo?" asked Auntie Saotome.

"As soon as I can. Thank you very much for finding him again and helping him. I needed to get away after the fallout of that stupid wedding. " said Akane.

"Not a problem, my dear. HE didn't deserve you. Even when he was young. I could see it in his eyes." said Auntie Saotome.

Even now, despite what he knew about Ranma, he looked at him as more as a rival for Akane than the Bread Fight. Now that Ranma was laid low, Ryouga was about to rejoice in an indirect victory, but wasn't prepared for what they said next. It made him rethink a lot of things.

"...How about Ryouga. He's in love with you, you know."

"Yes, I do, but I have Honda...It was fun seeing Ranma's expression when I hug 'P-chan' and then mallet him when he 'abuses' him." Akane stops as she sees the expression on the faces at the table and exclaims, "Of course I knew. The directionless pig with a bandana just like Ryouga. I'm not an idiot, you know." Settling down she continued, "Also how fun it is to tease him when he's in his pig form when I slip into my pajamas for bed." Sighed Akane, "Now that's Ranma is gone, Ryouga will have to go. The next time I see him, I will give him the Mallet that he would never forget. He's a pervert for just being there with me and for the other times he was snuggling up when I was sleeping. They are all perverts exept Shinnosuke and father."

"Yes, truly dishonourable. How could you have stood it, Akane." asked Auntie Saotome.

"I just bore it." Akane said with great dignity. Kodatchi nodded in sympathy, but didn't say anything. Shampoo and Ukyo just looked at her as if seeing her for the first time. Either she was a great actress to fool them or herself. They thought she actually cared for Ryouga. Kasumi beamed with pride at Akane's self sacrifice.

Nabiki was a surprise. Throughout the conversation she just stayed quiet. Not one thing slipped behind her mask of calmness. There was no sarcasm from her or any of her usual cutting comments. It was almost as if everything he ever knew about these females were completely and utterly wrong.

It was only then that the implications came to Ryouga's mind. His eyes widened and had an impossible the biggest facefault he ever had in pig form when he heard this. He was shocked, but tried to pick himself up even as the emotional spikes were being driven home. Akane actually knew about his curse. On other circumstances, the way she liberally used him would have been secondary. In addition, she knew that he loved her and scoffed at it. He knew without a doubt that she deliberately did things to tick him off with the full knowledge of what she was doing had appalled him.

True, he did blame Ranma for many things, but not EVERYTHING. Yes, he used her to get back at Ranma. Now as he remembered the less honourable things he had done, he did look foolish and... 'pig headed'. He cringed at the memories about how she told him how Ranma had hurt her and how he played right into her hands in battling Ranma.

In a turnaround event, his entire focus shifted as he sought to deny it, yet the very thing he couldn't have ever believed about Akane had come from her own mouth.

It was true that a few days before he overheard Akane and her friend Yuka, but he still thought he had a chance.

Anger started to smother at Akane with her deception and her line of reasoning that he was at fault when she knew, right from the start, that he was that pig. Calling HIM a pervert and feeling that it was HER right to mallet him when SHE was the one who continually picked him up and used him. Now she was discarding him like yesterday's news for something that she could have stopped at any time, for a person who she could have told her father so that the engagement would have been called off for her.

In some guilt, yes he used her to get back at Ranma. He realized that he could have told her, but then the anger came back when he realized that she knew. Also that he loved her and dismissed it out of hand. It showed that she never had any feelings for him, not compassion for her not loving him, remorse of her using him or even signs of any friendship.

His feelings for Ranma soften as he felt more sympathetic. He felt like he was as duped as Ranma. Being duped, even willingly duped by someone who looks like your friend and despises you behind your back had come as a huge shock. If anything, Ranma never did those things. He never had a poker face. He was a very bad liar.

He missed the last few minutes of the conversation, but managed to catch the next part. What Auntie Saotome made him think.

"I knew he didn't deserve it. Genma was many things, but moral wasn't one of it. I made sure that I will have final say and be head of the pathetic Saotome Clan." Auntie Saotome smiled a not nice smile, " It is up to me if the bastard lives or dies." As she ranted some more, what came next had placed erased any doubt Ryouga had about Ranma, "Who do think sold Genma the training manual to the Nekkoken, or ..." listing off the horrors of training methods that Ranma underwent, "...or the map to Jusenkyo. " I even help Ryouga get there (translation: I practically lead him there.) I made sure that Genma went there. His pride and stupidity did the rest.

"I had my ninjas make Genma move on or die that day of the bread duel. Can you imagine, Ranma would have stayed that extra day for Ryouga. It was lucky for them, Genma knocked Ranma out before my ninjas could take him out."

Shock by all, especially Ryouga.

Ryouga thought, "He would have stayed?".

"Why didn't you just make him commit seppuku if you hated him so much?" asked Ukyo.

Taking a sigh, "Despite everything, there are he had done deeds in fulfilling the bushido way. Something that even I could respect. I gave him one more chance to redeem himself in my eyes and he failed." Even Ryouga shivered at the almost irrational hatred, anger and twisted honour that even scared him, but...it seemed to him that it was directed at what Ranma was becoming than at Ranma himself.

Ryouga could feel the malice in her and felt that her disappointment was that Ranma not only lived though it, but was stronger. He thought, "She planned this out to kill them both, but they lived. I shutter to think what he needed to be to redeem himself if she was prejudice against him from the first."

Feelings and attitudes are curious things. Some things could be etched in stone while others would never be set. For the first time in his life, Ryouga felt calm as his outlook on life changed. He came to a decision about three things.

The first was that Ranma would have stayed the extra day for the challenge if his mother hadn't sent her ninjas after them on the third day.

Second, even though Ranma got him cursed, he wasn't totally at fault. It was his mother who directed him there.

The last one was that all of the things that Akane now said to him about anything is suspect. His anger was still there, but it shifted to these...CREATURES. They were worse than Akari and her pig fetish. She was only happy when he was in his cursed form.

Still in shock with all of these relevations, Ryouga thought as his brain started to go into overdrive. For the first time in his life, he actually saw Ranma's position, "They were all missing that if he chose one, he would let the honour of the others be stained and he knew he was in a no win situation ... Hmm, perhaps that was the point. They justify it for themselves that he was to blame for things that he couldn't have done anything about.... They could easily turn on me or anyone else if they had any reason to."

As he thought harder, many things had changed in his view. He had followed Ranma, but Ranma followed Genma, so who was directed by Ranma's mother who was definitely at fault. This included the seppuku contract from Ranma's mother hat drove Genma to do insane things with Ranma. As it all started with Ranma's mother, knowing what Genma would teach him and helping it along with all the power at her disposal, so it ends with her.

As he snapped out of his train of thought, he heard the rest of the conversation.

Akane said, "Anyway, with the baka 'maimed' and not dead, he not a man anymore. There can't be a marriage of families and so all of our family's honour is intact except for Ranma's. I think that is a very fair trade."

"I think that I should introduce the to Honda. All I really have to do is approve of him. Father seems more willing now to find another heir and he fits quite nicely. Even Happosai is trying to get a new heir. I'm glad we kicked out that lousy panda. Both him and Ranma was an eating machine. You couldn't believe the food bill they left us." said Kasumi.

As if to change the subject, Kasumi said, "There seem to be no change in his condition. In a couple of months, it wouldn't matter. All the agreements will be voided. If he does recover, who will marry such an honourless rogue such as Ranma when his mother confronts him with the contract and also 'rumours' will spread about how honourless he was and his 'vile deeds' as Kuno would have said it."

They all laughed at that as their ice creams came. They started eating and nothing was said for a while until...

"You're quiet tonight, Nabiki." asked Kasumi.

Nabiki shrugged.

Ryouga was surprised when he saw no malice, but only indifference in her face. It was like she was only here because she had to be. She seemed to be the only person who wasn't out to get Ranma. Come to think about it, she was probably the most fair of the girls.

What a surprise it was.

When Nabiki suddenly got up and walked out without saying a word surprised everyone, but no one asked her where she was going. They all just turned away from her and Ryouga could see by their body language that they really didn't care, even Kasumi turned away. What shocked him was that before she was totally out of the room she looked directly at him for a split second.

"He will do what we tell him to." said Akane. "If he gives you a hard time, just tell him that you'll stop paying for the hospital. If that fails then Auntie Saotome will get him to sign the contract and tell him that he will do as Nabiki says or she will enforce the suicide contract. Nabiki will do as you tell her, Auntie"

"I still might do it because he stains her honour of not just being illegitimate, but turning into a girl as well so that only his death will clean my honour." said Auntie Saotome. Kasumi sagely nodded.

Ryouga had gotten he distinct impression from Kasumi that she looked up to Auntie Saotome as did all the rest, except Nabiki. He could certainly see why they did look up to her. Auntie Satome was a forceful female and mother figure. He knew how lonely it felt without his mother. He saw her only when they wander into each other from time to time. Drat that directional curse.

They made some small talk and it ended when Kodatchi sighed, "This will probably be the last time we meet like this. Kasumi, Nabiki and Ms. Saotome had said their good byes to you, but I'm glad we were here this last time where it all started."

A chorus of "Hai" and a small silence before the meeting broke up.

He realized that they were headed his way and he ran and...got lost.

After a few minutes, he looked outside to see an empty lot.

After that, it became a haze for Ryouga.

Ryouga was shocked once, twice and now three times. This time, Ryouga sat down and...thought.

Snow was starting to come down in the Underworld.

His quest for vengeance, he could understand, but not why the Tendo sisters, Ranma's other fiancees and even Ranma's own mother was against him. At any other time, he would have said that Ranma deserved that. Begrudgingly, it was true that he stayed for three days, but he did come on the fourth day. The excuse of him not showing up after four days had sounded weak, even to his ears now.

Back to the problem, at any other time he would have rejoiced at the downfall of his rival, but...not by how he was betrayed by those he cared about.

First, Ranma's mother plotted with Kasumi and his fiancees. They had totally fooled him. He actually thought they had cared, even a little. It sent shivers in him as how they manipulated the events for their gain. He shivered even more when he thought of them going after him.

Oh yes, he could blame Ranma for that, but somehow he couldn't do it. He shuddered as he thougth back to Akari and that same look that Shampoo had when he beat her sumo pig. She was nice only when you did what she told you to.

Now sleet and hail were now coming down, covering the lava and brimstone of the Underworld.

Second, he was totally surprised that Akane never had any feelings for him. Even he could see that she cared for him and despaired for her. Again, at any other time he would have rejoiced...now he was just sick. He knew he was almost what you called DEAD WRONG in some of his views on people. The Sweet Akane that HE had thought she was, had never had any feelings for HIM at all. She had PLAYED him very well against Ranma and himself, not that he minded as he did the same to get back at Ranma. What infuriated him was that she thought he was now used up and had already discarded him without a second thought. He shivered as he thought of that cold hearted bitch. As things started to fall into place, he also knew now Akane was seeing Honda. As the thoughts built up steam and sped up, it seemed that Akane had always been seeing Honda behind both their backs and then to add insult to injury blamed and mallet them for both for the so called perverted things when she could have told everyone at any time. That would have stopped the engagement and transferred it to someone else, but no they all had to play this out.

A huge AVALANCHE came as the Demons and Demonesses who tried to melt the ice with their powers were plowed under.

Lastly, he knew that Ranma loved his mother and would never do anything to hurt her, yet Ranma's mother would cheerfully hurt her son. Though he hated to admit it, even he knew that Ranma was one of THE most honourable person he ever met, despite what he called him.

After all that happened in the Underworld, you don't want to know.

A puzzling thing that kept buzzing around in his head then the mallet came home to him. They all hurt Ranma for their honour and their amusement and also by extension to everybody around him. Mousse and even Kuno were also only pawns in their schemes. To think that even Hinako knew about it and did nothing was sick to his stomach. Hinako was a teacher who was a person in authority who could and should have stopped it.

Another thought, if Ranma couldn't fulfil the pledge then he was at fault, not them. It was a very clever plan. No one would have been the wiser if he hadn't heard it with his own ears. He still had a hard time believing in it, but in that moment that Akane had shown her true colours to him, how she royally fooled him, everything had changed. As his life came back to him, the pain in his heart made him look beyond his depression. Who really hurt him.

His world was turned upside down. Ranma hurt him a lot, but that was bread as he long since stopped seeing him as a enemy and more as a rival for Akane. What fools both of them were. Not only did they all shattered his trust as he saw them all for the very first time, they broke faith with what honour was all about. If no one knew then there was no shame for them. Only their honour was intact as everyone else's were gone.

The final shock was that, Akane was the one who 'maimed' Ranma. Intentionally tried to cripple Ranma. Yes, he did say that he wanted to kill Ranma, but deep in the back of his mind, he knew that Ranma could take it. He realized that he did follow the rule, "A true martial artist defended the weak and never killed unless in the last resort, only in self defence." If that was true then by extension, Akane, Kasumi, Ranma's mother weren't the weak or innocent. Even thougth Shampoo was within her rights in her village and Ukyo was still on a quest for vengeance no matter what she said to Ranma, they too weren't weak or innocent.

In the end, all he wanted to was to have just one victory over Ranma. Anything really. Despite everything, he respected Ranma for what sacrifices that he went though for his honour and to keep everyone else's intact. If it was him, he thought he would have went crazy.

That night, he wandered away to think about it some more.

After all these shocks, the random blizzards that fell as the Underworld became the Polar Ice Cap weren't really noticed anymore.

End of Flashback

Author's Notes:

This is the chapter where the problems of his life become revealed. 


	5. Chapter 3

CHAOS SQUARED - FIRST ARC

Chapter 3

Contemplation

The silence was profound. The air thick with unsaid words and masked feelings. Ryouga left the room to leave Ranma with his thoughts.

To Ranma, everything had come terribly undone, but yet came together.

His life was truly in a shambles. The shock was so great that had to gather himself to go on through the pain. Akane had found a boyfriend at least one month after the failed wedding attempt. He was even more surprised at that Kodachi was sane. So, they all truly had no feelings for him, even his mother who hated him because of he reminded of the man who abandoned her...

Yet through all that, he found that everything came together. All the little clues that couldn't really figure out or didn't want figure out. Things kept happening to him to keep him off balance.

What he did feel was disgust. Akane was the one who was seeing someone behind his back. The plan of maiming him him made him shake his head. With that, his feelings for her plummeted to new lows. It revolved around honour, pride and their amusement.

It occurred to him that in a way it was a good thing that it did happen. He shuddered to think what would have happened if he did marry any of his fiancees. He saw now that they would have made his life a living heck.

He was outraged that they did this to him, especially his mother. He had to think about it...

Hours later

For the first time, he saw where most of his problems started with. His mother. His father was a moron most of the time, but didn't actively want to destroy him. The big question was why? What did he do or what did he represent that hated him so much?

He had to do something about it, but now a plan was starting to form. Ryouga had gotten tired and wandered out.

He sat there for a very, very long time as his whole world had turned upside down AGAIN.

Kasumi wasn't as out of it as he thought. A part of him wanted to deny it. This was Kasumi, the one who was the nice to everyone. Then again she was the mother of the Tendo family and taken in that context, what she did would be protecting her family and giving them a livelihood at his expense.

Throughout that time, the news that Ranma was actually gone had spread. The official parade of Good Bye and Good Riddence, Ranma. They didn't care how he was gone only that he was.

From that parade, Ranma would find out first hand the dark side of human nature. How any bad rumours even if they weren't true could destroy a reputation.

It was this the one thing he couldn't fight. It was the rumours that came out of nowhere. Many were about how dishonourable he was, the abuses he had given the Tendos, many of the dark deals that were made and so on. The rumours twisted what happened until it was only Ranma who was the dishonourable one. It also made out the Tendos and the Satomes to be unwilling victims of Ranma, especially Akane, even though she always hits him. This set Kuno off and he vowed to put an end to ther reign of terror of 'Vile Satome' and rescue his pigtailed and Nurse Goddessses. Ryouga, Mousse, Happosai and Taro were made to be totally clueless morons also. Shampoo, Ukyou, Akane, Kodatchi and Kasumi were made out to be the 'real victims' of his infidelity to the fullest.

Almost overnight, everybody in Nerima believed the rumours or at least had doubts about him. It came as a surprise that it was Kasumi actively took a part. He knew that Kasumi always worked in the shadow. She seemed to relish the attention. Perhaps it was that she actually wanted to vent out her frustrations.

As the days turned weeks, the rumours became more and more exaggerated and dark. The more vicious rumours would come from Akane's friends, Sayuri and Yuka. In the time that followed, it would become painfully to him that most of the students of Furinkan took it as the truth despite what they knew about him. Maybe the reason was that secretly they sometimes thought he did seem too clueless or honourful. Many of his 'friends' or people wanting attention bragged that they knew all along that he did what the rumours said which made it more believable. After a while, most of them actually believed the rumours themselves. Most people were in sympathy for the Tendos and the Satomes.

It got worse. Now that he wasn't there anymore, Happosai ran free as panty raids were more frequent and no one could stop him. More weird things started to happen as the Yorma threat from Jubban spilled over to Nerima. Also the damage wasn't localized to the Tendo Dojo.

It was in this time that people showed how finicky they were. They wanted their cake and eat it too.

Just weeks ago, they had a parade that he was gone and never wanted him to come back. Now they blamed him for not being there anymore to take the brunt of the weirdness. Bastard, coward and dishonourable cur was the nicest things said about him. It was convenient of them to forget that weirdness had always come to Nerima before Ranma and now they had a scapegoat for all of their problems.

It did make an impact on the hospital as the nurses became sceptical again and more resentment against him was building up. Kasumi, herself, directly fanned the flames by recounting her own experiences, leaving omissions that left little to the imagination.

The head nurse was more sceptical of the rumours, especially when she saw that Khun Lo herself had tried to get him into the tribe. She knew Khun Lo had excellent judgement in ability, but more in character and knew that she wouldn't have pursued Ranma if he did any of those things the rumours said. She also had a talk with Ryouga about Ranma and was shocked a the difference from what the rumours had held. It didn't come to a surprise to her when she found that Ranma didn't know about the rumours when she told him about it. Rumours were the whispers behind someone's back which couldn't be countered the person who was in the rumour never knew about it. She only nodded when he gave the same version that Ryouga said. It was a relief to Ranma because it did explain the dark, dark looks he was given by all of the nurses and patients who he saw.

Ranma's luck seemed to be changing when Daisuku and Hiroshi arrived to visit Ranma on Kasumi's off day. They were self professed cowards, but they were also the only people who actually came to his defence against the rumours. They were shocked that nurses actually believed the outrageous rumours. They went to see the head nurse to stop this nonsense because everyone seemed to believe it also and wouldn't listen to them. The head nurse had questioned them and found that, in typical fashion, the rumours were really half-truths that preyed on people's gullability, but more to people's secret superiority that they relish or just to put down someone else. They mainly refuted the slant of all of the rumours.

When the head nurse gathered as much information as she could from them, she had a meeting with the administration and the nurses in and gave them all the information she had. They were there to answer any questions the people had. They explained that, in their time as Ranma's friends, they had never seen him do ANYTHING dishonourable. Also out of all the people who they could call friends, he was the only true friend they had at Furinkan and was the only one who judged them on their merits and not what he heard from others. Ranma had always helped them, the Tendos, the Nerima people and even his enemies when they needed it and many time without question because that was just who he was. They had personally seen other people, such as the 'victims', do the deeds and then and blamed him for it. They pointed out that the timing was only when Ranma was in the hospital and unable to defend himself and that the power of rumours would never quite go away, but lurk under the surface ready to spring on him again.

Faced with similar answers from Ryouga, many of the nurses were shocked that Kasumi was never at the many places where Ranma was 'alleged' to have done his vile that he even did it himself. Many were puzzled as to why Kasumi would recounted them with a larger slant against Ranma.

Even though many were sceptical, in the end, the single thread that they find with certainty in the rumours were that they did happen, but they made by their apparent 'victims' than by Ranma himself. They told the sceptical ones to that if they wanted proof then they could see them in the public record, newspapers, internet, etc.. The more determined ones actually went to some

Nerima television stations later that day and succeeded with their connections to view many of the footages of Ranma in battle on many occasions.

What they found wasn't at all what they expected. Ranma who was the real 'victim' almost all of the time. The other 'victims' almost always instigated the problems, escalated it, blamed him when something they did went wrong or a combination of the previous three things.

There were two sequence was almost predictable. It always happened regardless if he was male or female. First, Ranma was doing something normal like walking home alone or with groceries for Kasumi. Next is usually his fiancees who came and glomped him. It was normal that he would try to get them off as he was turning blue a lot. Followed by his rivals as each of them declared him a fiend and/or gave him a death threat. The next surprised them as Akane always was there at the wrong time to call him a pervert on a flimsy excuse or with no excuse at all. The following was the usual of Ranma beat his rivals after a big fight then Akane insults him. Even they could tell that it was almost scripted. The last was that he was pounded with her mallet out of nowhere into Low Earth Orbit, hit with cold water to change him into a she with at scathing insult to his manhood, hit with another object, slapped or given the could shoulder regardless of what had happened.

The second sequence was a variation for the first as it always started with Ranma being glomped by his fiancee then is challenged by the rival or rivals for that particular fiancee visa versa. His rival or rivals usually have some new technique or dirty trick to use. He fights his rivals, runs away, only to come back and beat them. It seem to them that it was a game to him while they try to kill him when beats them. Akane then appear out of nowhere and calls him a pervert during or after the fight and predictably, he return of the insult after the fight and then Akane pounded with her mallet LEO, hit with cold water with at scathing insult to his manhood, hit with another object, slapped or given the could shoulder.

His friends said also that his adventures were almost always started with Ranma being challenged by the odd super martial artist or a magical prince trying to kidnap Akane for some odd reason. Many times, Akane would suddenly be there and inevitably yelled that she was a martial artist too and tries to fight. She is usually hopelessly outclassed. Seconds after, his other fiancees come with his rivals in tow and the other Tendos. Soun demands that he save Akane who is usually almost beaten/taken. Ranma and sometimes with the help of his rivals and other fiancees save her. Inevidably, she saids it was her fight and insults him. Predictably, Ranma return of the insult and then Akane pounded with her mallet LEO, hit with cold water with at scathing insult to his manhood, hit with another object, slapped or given the could shoulder.

A side note was that P-chan always did the first dirty move and when Ranma retaliates then Akane is suddenly there again and calls, 'Stop picking in P-chan' then launches him by Air Akane. Ryouga cringed at that one.

They did find that, while it was true that Ranma said some really stupid things, it was always the truth and he always took responsibility of his actions. It consistently showed that NONE of the 'victims' ever took responsibility of anything they did. They got in trouble, but never took responsibility of it. They even saw the pleasure they got from the troubles they caused Ranma.

To be absolutely sure, the head nurse had even went so far as to send false information through Kasumi to make sure it came through her. Unfortunately, it always did and turned into twisted rumours no matter how off handed the remark was given.

All the nurses were veterans when it came to holding their clients secrets. It was only when they thought about how Kasumi egged them on about Ranma in particular, it reminded them of another painful incident. It was just like a many years back when a more resourceful reporter that had infiltrated the hospital and gotten a huge scoop. The embarrassment and damage to the hospital's reputation were still being felt to this day.

It was the most spectacular rumour that got the nurses on Ranma's side when they heard Ranma had gone totally crazy and attacked at least 20 nurses and taking at least 15 of them out. It stated at how Ranma had blazed out with viciousness that had hurt the nurses and made him look even crazier and also had to have restraints. This had made Kuno crazier than ever and vowed to SAVE his Nurse Goddesses.

The fact was that it was true, but the hospital had kept it quiet because it was bad for business. Also, his wing was a new wing in where the patients were mostly bedridden so no one could have known the details. The question was, "how did the rumor-mongers get it and with so much detail?" When all was said and done, the only ones who knew where the head nurse, the nurses, Dr. Tofu, Dr. Mizuko, Ranma and...Kasumi since she gossiped with the nurses.

It could have been that it was just innocence gossip with Kasumi, but the head nurse reminded them of the privacy that was the hallmark of the hospital. Ranma had enough confidence in the head nurse to confide in her about what happened to him. Ryouga was against it at first until Ranma told him that they needed all the help they could get. Ryouga reluctantly agreed.

The nurses were concerned about information getting out, not circulating, so there was no impeding of the informal grapevine has transferred the news throughout the hospital. Patients and other nurses and cleaning staff were giving Ranma more sympathetic looks as he passed. They were shocked that Kasumi wasn't the nice girl seemed to be. Little did they know that some things were coming to a head.

It wouldn't be until years later of condemning Ranma that the people of Nerima would be ridiculed later on by everyone else when they finally acknowledged that the rumours that was so close to their hearts weren't true. They would turn around so completely saying how proud they were of Ranma when the deeds that would be done would put them in the worst possible light. In the past Ranma was forgiving, but he wasn't that forgiving after the years of abuse they gave him.

The final straw that closed the rumour out was the last rumour of him being a 'burkurium.' This rumour would have been the most devastating hadn't a truly miraculous happening. Getting wind of this rumour, the Emperor himself denounced the rumour and quelled it for all time.

What connections did the Satomes had with the Emperor? It was in their history. The three supporting families of the Emperor in the beginning was none other than the Tanaka Clan, Meiji Clan and the Satome Clan. The Tanaka and Meiji Clans were still powerful, but there were some trouble years ago and now they were rivals instead of allies. The Satome Clan suffered the most as it declined, but still was in favour with the Emperor for their service to the Imperial Family.

In that light, the rumours actually helped Ranma. Knowing his former trusted people were his enemies were one thing, but to actually see them do it and in ways that he couldn't solve by physically force. It made him think of ways to fight back, other than physical fighting.

The old Ranma would have been more clueless, but now when one had no real future changes one's perspective. He saw his injuries. He saw the damage, but he knew one thing. He will over come it, but he also realized that time wasn't on his side. It may take years for him to physically be able again.

With no other option, he had to start with everything else that wasn't physical. He would have to get good grades in school to go to University. He knew it would be extremely difficult, being with Genma for 10 years didn't improve it. It was only now that it was starting to work and he find out the trick. Instead of looking at everyone though rose coloured glasses, he now would see everything in terms of a battle. Whether physical to verbal to even through gestures. His rivals were just that, his rivals, but he now knew his REAL enemies. For those who worked in the background and pulled the strings. In his life, he never really saw anyone as such a despicable people, but if he learned anything in his life, especially in the last year, was that there were people like that and they DARE to call themselves honourable...

It was a very hard lesson being learned. Even more appalling was the ease that he had been manipulated so easily because they knew him and everything about him. His mother, his fiancees and even the other Tendo girls who he had considered sisters had betrayed him.

At first when he heard about the rumours, he had thought Nabiki had started the rumours, but dismissed the thought because this wasn't her style and also it wasn't profitable for her. Later, when he heard that Kasumi had made the more exaggerated rumours more plausible, it shook him deeply. He now realized why his enemies were always seemed to be a step ahead of him.

As he started to calm down, instinctively using the Soul of Ice, he realized that they knew everything that had happened and used it to their advantage. The one lesson that he finally learned from Nabiki had come to be his motto now, ANY knowledge was power. It took him a lot longer than most, but with his background, it was still very speedy.

A thought suddenly snapped into his head as all became clear. This is what Sun Tze was always talking about in the Art of War. If he knew his enemy, his terrain and himself then he would never be defeated. His problem was that he lacked the knowledge of all three in the past. He now knew who his enemies were and how they worked.

Kasumi was one of the masterminds of the plan. So with that in mind, he tried to remember who Tendo Kasumi was without the niceness to distract him. After a few minutes, he frowned as little things that nagged at him or dismissed came up. It was the way Kasumi dismissed Akane's violent nature as if it was her right. It was by saying that Akane did it was a nice girl, but a violent maniac, the fact that it was she who gave Akane the mallet in the first place. Many times she had come at precisely the wrong time when Dr. Tofu was working on him. Many 'accidents' that got him splashed into his cursed form at the most awkward times. Other occasions when he left the house and being found by his enemies when only she knew he was going and the list goes on and on.

Alarm bells went off in his head as he remembered her aura flickered though many colours that weren't nice emotions. One in particular was seemed out of place. It was the colour of righteousness that always accompanied her angry colour when Akane hit him with her mallet. He could see she was getting defensive despite her words. As she prattled on about how sorry she was that Akane did in detail, the words rang hollow as he could feel satisfaction from her in her recounting of events, not in its retelling like gossip.

Later that week

Brooding over this sudden turnabout in his life, he suddenly felt a presence and his danger sense went off like a sounding horn. He turned his head and saw a young girl about twelve years old. He didn't understand why his danger sense went off until he saw the catlike animal with her. The nurses didn't have the heart to take her pet away. His fear came back with a vengeance when the said pet "mia", close enough for a "meow" and had to physically suppress the urge to flee. In trying to control his shivering fear, he said that it wasn't a cat and won't hurt him he kept on thinking like a mantra. The girl came and stared at him through the door, smiling a bright smile and then went her own way. She was about fourteen with two long pony tails in her light blue hair.

Finally after two weeks, she had become more or less almost welcomed distraction from the near boredom that threatened to engulf him. He hadn't a thing to do. His whole life was devoted to martial arts and now he was unable to do even the most basic of katas.

It wasn't until one day she didn't come by his door. He became puzzled and waited for her the next day and then the day after. One day, a week later, she did come over, the ever present pet and customary smile was there, but he could tell the difference immediately. Her chi was much lower and she moved without her bouncy step. It was her eyes that told the story, the tiredness and pain as she then made her way past his door. Even though his apprehension for her pet, he could tell that the pet was worried also. He knew that animals knew much more about illness than people. He saw it when a girl he knew died of cancer. During her decline, her pet dog was the only indicator of her decline until it was visible. A few days after she came one last time and he could see her labouring in her steps, but refusing to give up. His heart which was numb after the betrayal by Akane started to open up to this courageous girl.

A week passed and Ranma was starting to get alarmed. Weakened by over a month of inactivity, he had some trouble even getting up. He realized he was feeling the effects of having very low chi. He naturally used his chi for physical exertion, but now he had to do without. He also noticed the bruises and aches that normally disappear within hours were still there and they hurt a lot. His old sensei had said that ki helps the body speeds recovery and enhances physical performance, but warned that if he was low on ki then he would heal normally.

Grimacing, he pressed the button to summon the nurse. He was surprised when it was the head nurse who immediately came to see him. The head nurse could see that the darkness and depression that marred his handsome features were lighter today. She signalled one of the nurses passing by outside to get him a wheelchair which was quickly brought. After another grimace, he took the chair and slowly lowered himself into the chair feet first. He stayed in the chair for a minute before experimenting with the movement of the chair. Going back and forth, turning, stopping and backing up with a slowness that seemed uncharacteristic of him. A sense of deja vu started to pervade moment as he seemed to decide something.

He asked in a very soft voice as he looked up, "Where is the children's ward."

Though surprised, the head nurse immediately answered, "About two floors up in the West Wing."

"Arigato." he said and before she could react, he sped off. Despite being out martial arts for a long time, his injury and his inexperience with a wheelchair, he was still in excellent physical condition.

The nurses were staring after what they thought was a blur with a pig tail before the head nurse yelled, "After him!" and the chase was on. This was a radical change from their view of him. They were used to the Ranma who was broding and sedentary, but this new Ranma of almost boundless energy and adaptabililty despite the fact that they fought him disturbed them. How he got through the tightly packed door was beyond them, they ran after him with the head nurse in the lead pogoing on her staff.

As they got to the West Wing, he seemed to disappear. Frantically, the other nurses searched for about an hour until they saw the head nurse who was looking into the section of the children's ward for difficult or cases beyond their care. The ones they knew who would die. What they saw surprised them. There was Ranma next to a young girl with her pet. That particular girl was a bundle of energy who seemed always to escape from her bed, but lately her condition deteriorated so she couldn't leave the bed. To make matters worse, like Ranma, all of the people she knew were banned from coming into the hospital because of the damage they caused, so she really had no one to talk to.

They were completely surprised when she did smile, in fact, she laughed with Ranma. A sound that was so foreign in this section that everyone around Ranma and the young girl looked up in shock. All of the nurses outside the ward were shocked as well. The hopelessness that pervaded the people was abruptly lifted by just a single laugh.

The head nurse was particularly interested that Ranma didn't revert to his feral state or run away at the pet, but actually sought the person with the pet. She smiled as she thought of what a unique individual he was. He was unconsciously started the first step in coming to terms with the Nekkoken. She knew of no other cases in which a person had a strong enough willpower to just get to the first step without help. She realized that she couldn't even imagine what it took for him just to get to this point. She was curious at how far with this first step will he have in harnessing its true power.

The girl seemed oblivious that her new friend was terrified of her pet. She kept on playing with her pet and it seemed to be taking this with a huge amount of suffering in its sad eyes that Ranma had to take the animal or it would have made him cry.

It took enormous strength for him to do that. As he looked at the pet and thought how the pet had answered, he could swear that it could understand everybody. He wasn't sceptical of that because he saw stranger things in his short life. He could almost see tears in the eyes of the pet.

When she saw that he took he pet, she desperately wanted her new friend to like her and him becoming friends with pet. Tears started to come into her eyes for no reason and she started to cry.

Frantic for something to cheer her up, Ranma tried to thing of something, anything. The only thing he could think of was something to take her mind off her troubles, so he started to tell her the story of his life. Of course with another person replacing him as the hero. The pet hopped from his lap to the young girl's.

The story came out choppy and after a few minutes he got into the flowed like everything he always done. At first, the people around him didn't pay attention to what he said, but ever so slowly in ones and twos the children started to gather around him. This in turn brought the nurses who worked in the ward around him too as well as the nurses that searched for him. As his storied flowed, no one disturbed him. The story seemed... so real that even the nurses were caught up in the story. The tale of might, magic and martial arts.

One of the children who was listening to the story suddenly said, "That's silly, mommy told me that there's no such thing as magic."

True to form, a nurse tripped and her glass of water splashed him. As he changed, he smiled with a raised eyebrow and said in his higher voice, "I see, I suppose I can't change your mind."

The child's eyes widened. Before she could say anything, he shrugged and said, "I guess that's all for the story..."

"No! I want to hear more." young girl begged even though she startled with the change.

"Hmmm..." he said as he pretend to think hard about this.

As the children started to beg for more, he heard the girl say, "Pleeeaaassee. Ryo-chan wants to hear it too." as she brought forward her pet and Ranma tried not to cringe in fear. Her eyes seemed so full of wanting to be accepted.

With supreme effort of quelling his fear, he slowly took her and the pet and put it in his lap before saying, "Ok."

He continued and it went on and on.

He voice slowly died away in the middle of a sentence because the young girl as well as the some other children were asleep. The nurses tucked them in and the young girl slept with her pet resting on her head. He could swear again that he could see intelligence and gratitude in the eyes of Ryo, her pet. When he turned around to leave, a huge sweatdrop formed in the back of his head. The children, parents of the children and even the most hardened nurses were looking at him in absolute silence.

A small boy, no more than five, came up to him and tugged on his shirt. To his surprise, the boy held out his arms and Ranma lifted him up onto his lap. That was when the questions started to begin, but before it could start in earnest, he put the girl back into her bed before the head nurse wheeled him out of the ward.

As the head nurse shook her head, she knew that if she hadn't seen it, she would never have believed it. It wasn't about Jusenkyo, but the way the children acted. This was the first time in months that she had actually seen them take an active part in anything. Over the months, she had seen the children being worn down by tests, uncertainty and overprotective parents. She was happy to see them actually interested in doing anything other than being stressed out. Another interesting part was that the Ranma seemed to control his fear, she smiled because this was the only time that she ever heard of the Nekkoken that a person controlled their fear to actually take a cat like object. Maybe he would be the only person in the history of the Nekkoken who would actually be able to not go crazy with when a cat was present. This was a more progressive step. For just a minute, she could see him empathizing with the Ryo and smiled again.

As time passed, Ranma came frequently to see the children, but not when Kasumi visited. He was almost certain that she had played not an insignificant part which made him less open or talkative with her.

As he turned from this problem, he started to focus on the children. He couldn't really see how these children could cope with all the problems they had. Heck, he had a hard enough time with his own life. He was impressed at how these children who had unbelievable hardships could just be children that he saw in the park. As he watched them, he would saw a lot of himself in them. When they said something, they meant it. If they disliked someone, they told them and the same if they liked them also. He could talk to them in a way he couldn't talk to anyone else. There were no innuendos, no polite face or trying to turn facts. They also saw things with clear eyes. The social norms not affecting them.

The girl's name, he found out was Sammi and that she was an caught a mysterious disease that left her with a weakening body. Her body simply was shutting down and there wasn't anything the hospital could do about it. They really never had encountered anything like this before.

He also came to know the other children and they came to know him. Contrary to what many people would say, he found that the children were very intelligent and inquisitive. He never talked down to anyone and the children were no exception.

They were drawn to Ranma by both his charm and his pain that they felt much like their own. They could feel that something had hurt him as much as they were and wanted to help him. They felt his fear when he picked up her pet more and more. With their help and support, he had even had the courage to pick up and play with it, trying to get its mind off how sick the young girl was. She had been very sick the last two weeks.

His depression resurfaced many times and he would go silent. The children would sense this and crowd around him when he did that. They didn't like to see anyone depressed, especially the normally happy Ranma. The happy faces of the children and the laugh of Sammi always lifted his heart.

As time went on, they accepted him as an equal, not as an "adult" who doesn't listen to them. Surpring as it sounds, as an equal, they would open up to him, tell him their secrets knowing that they wouldn't tell anyone else. If there was an argument, he would be the judge.

It was then that Sammi, the young girl, wanted to hear the rest of the story. She had fallen alseep and the children, just remembering it, wanted to hear it too. Looking at the hopeful faces, he decided that the story should start properly at the beginning.

"Please Ranma, I want to hear the story rest of the story."

"Are you sure? I can start at the verrrry beginning of the story. I can guarentee that you will hear the rest of the story."

Sammi furrowed her brow in thought as she was deciding what to do. She wanted to hear the rest of the story, but it wasn't even the real beginning of it. After a long while, she said, "Ok,but make it a good one."

Ranma smiled, "Well, it all began a verrrry looong time ago in a place not far from here..."

From here, the story of his life was being told by the one who knew it the best. It was a different viewpoint with a lot of details added in to make it to put the other manga to shame. He didn't know where th other details came from, but his life story took a life of its own and felt so much like deja vu. A trickle of something that had happened in to him before, but couldn't grasp it before it slipped away.

He had to gather himself and forced himself to begin. At first, it was slow and amateurish. Later it started to flow as he became accustomed to voicing his thoughts. It was only then that he truly thought about his life. The crises always left him with no time to assimilate what happened to him, but to brace for the next one.

As his story progressed, he began to think more and more about his life and where he was going. His perspective changed when he started looking through other people's point of view in his stories. Putting in what they said. Of course there was Magic and Martial Arts, but also a human side to the adventure.

Ranma was surprised that as he told his life story disguised as "made up" stories. He began to remember details that he forgotten. He wrote them down. For him, it was like a journal of sorts. These were his memories and his life, even though everyone thought it was made up.

He was letting out the frustrations, pent up feelings and insecurities about his life as he put his heart and soul into the telling of his tales. Laughter mingling with tears as he finally had a catharsis or a cleaning of the soul. In the entire time of that single story, no one said or did anything, not a child or an adult, be it nurse or parent. Tears were flowing freely down the cheeks of the children as they cried, for many it was their first time in a very long tiem as dams in the children burst.

Ranma was really surprised, it was only his first true story. It wasn't until later that the nurses approached him for a proposition. It would be a first for him, a job with the children for a salary and free place to stay. They knew that the hospital bills would be a tremendous burden on him. They were also overworked and knew the children and parents stressed them out. They were impressed with him and were starting to see him in a different light. He was good with the children and the children liked him. Also that with a single story, the children started healing the wounds that made that part of the children's ward a place of gloom. If the hospital didn't have enough money then they would pay it themselves. They needed help and needed it now which Ranma accepted. He didn't want to be a burden on his family or be obligated to at least Soun.

Two weeks later

He really didn't know where the inspirations came from. Characters deem to flow from him. Tales of heros and villans, noble and peasants with their problems. The stories that interested Sammi the most was the ones of the Tree People. She listened intently to it as if to memorize it. Ryo also did her best to do the same. She was also interested in Three Goddesses. One sealed away her power to become mortal and live the mortal life. Another goddess gave the people her Tree to help them and the final goddess who was jealous of the other two for having the courage into the unknown and triumph was plotting to take over the universe from them.

As he was developing his stories, some of the children came to him and showed him more of their favourite manga with trading cards. Some of the children handed him cards and he saw his image and everyone elses on them. As he read the storyline and started for read parts of the various volumes. he realized that it was his life. The last one was obviously after the failed wedding. The new ones, the children told him, would be out this year. The publisher was Kuno Industries with the author as Nukknas.

It gave him pause because he could almost see who it really was. The stories were of him and his adventures. He asked them for more copies and read them. He couldn't believe how intimate it was, even down to what he did with his mother. He found that he was always the clown in them with the others put in a much better light. It angered him that he was shown to be a total clueless washout. The females in the manga were toned down and always had a valid reason for why they were that way, but the most of the males were exaggerated to the craziest without going truely overboard. The one thread throughout the volumes was that no matter how good the men and boys were, the women and girls were always able to beat them because of their stupidity. In additon, the women never looked like fools while the men were always the fools.

At that point when he saw the name NUKKNAX, the name clicked as he remembered the references from what Ryouga heard. Honour was the most important thing to them. Their heirarchy. Nodoka Meiji was from one of the highest families in Japan. Ukyou Kuonji, very old and rich family from before the WWII. Kodatchi Kuno, old and rich family after WWII. Kasumi, Nabiki and Akane Tendo were descended from a samauri family. It wouldn't be a surprise for Xian Pu to be last. Despite perhaps impeccable bloodlines in China, she was a foreigner, but a respected one. NUKKNAX.

As far fetched as it seemed, more things fell into place, especially the intimate details of what he did with his mother. He always knew his mother was TOO traditional and had weird notions, but this seem too close to fit in. It was as though she wanted him to know it was them and show him that he couldn't a thing about it.

It was then he decided that it was time to modify his story. Different times and places, but with the parts of his life that HE remembered it and not the travesty that was in the manga. Every week there came a new story. Ranma had gotten better and better each day he continued. He remembered many details and opened his own imagination to the wonders that was his life. He made them seem larger than life, but also made it seem real. Not only to the children, but to the nurses and parents stop by at the time when he would tell them part of a story. Word spread as they do anywhere and the dividing walls that separated that part of the ward had to come down because there weren't enough room to hold all the people who wanted to hear his stories.

It wouldn't be until the latter part of his stay when he would get into the real adventures of his life. He would introduce the manga and change it. Where the dangers were more and more deadly. They would be captivated by the island became a land in a different dimension where a magician lived, were dismayed by the fierce female warriors, felt the magic of an ancient land and awe of a god and the his people. They also laughed at the cluelessness of all the people, especially the hero. The feats of martial arts, such as chi and ki blast, jumping up to thirty feet in the air and breaking boulders. A tale of honour, deceit, and humour. He was learning to laugh at himself as well as learning to keep quiet. In short, he became a fabulous story teller.

He even made up a story from the ideas the children had. To express themselves. They started it off and he continued it. They threw in ideas and he expanded it. It was really surprising where the stories went.

He was surprised to learn so much from the children like manners, social norms and when to just shut up because the children wanted to practice on him. If they goofed or if he did, they just laughed a good laugh. He was accepted and for the first time he learned how it was to be himself with no craziness happening and it felt good. It even made him forget about his injury.

This was the first break from his crazy life. The craziness that would have ensued were promptly booted out by the nurses who were upset by their constant sneaking ins. He felt confident. He had a job and not being a burden to anyone. Life was good.

It was then when some of his affairs were in order to do what he had to do

Author's note:

I feel good about Ranma. So many stories still have him as a cartoonish kind of character, but here he uses it to help others and to grow.

I see Shampoo and Ukyou as just using Ranma like Akane. I am basing this on the manga for Ukyou and Shampoo instead of the anime. I have never really seen Shampoo use anything other than potions to get Ranma and Ukyou never said any real feelings to him in the manga. I really felt that both were only doing this for their honour even though I like both of them in the anime.

Another problem I had with the manga was that only Akane was noticeably growing. There was some growth for Ranma, but it was only Akane had reached some plateau. No one else seemed to be growing much as they were all used for comic relief. I believe this is the reason why so many people like her and also that she is less violent.

The scene was inspired conspiracy fics that I have read. The usual was just the fiancee squad with Nabiki. This gives a farther ranging scope than the others... and also by the fact that the women in Ranma 1/2 always had advantages over the men.

Genma, I found that other than the fiancees and the Cat Fist he wasn't a malice and evil man. He was a weak man morally.

The original scene was that about the Tendo sisters and Nodoka was part of the Yakuza and that Ranma was the child of a rape by a rival family. Nodoka would hate Ranma because she blames the other family. Genma was a suppose to train him, but moved so often that the assinations sent by Nodoka failed. Who would see Kasumi, Akane and Nodoka as part of the Yakuza. Nabiki, maybe.

The idea was disgarded becasue I thought that it would have been too much. So I toned it down. Everyone who was in Ranma's former life isn't who they seem to be. Later chapters will tell why Nodoka hates Ranma so much and why vengence is always served cold on those who deem it their right.


	6. Author's Note

To answer some of your questions you have to see it in context.

Up until Nodoka's arrival Ukyou and Shampoo were with Ranma like in the Canon just like the others girls.

After the introduction of Nodoka things changed and she was the main reason that all the girls changed. The changes were subtle and gradual until it cumulated into the series of events that happened to Ranma. They played their parts because they wanted their honor intact. Ranma, on the other hand, had no clue that this was going to happen. She has her own demons that will be explained later. It does not make it any less heinous as what she did to her own son, but does shed light on why she did what she did.

As to why the girls had changed.

Let s face it. It s easier to tear down a person than to help them. An example is that high school gossips can destroy a person s reputation even if they knew them. If the gossiper is credible to them then they will doubt the person based on someone else s say so, but they will not go to the source which is the person because the person might be lying. Or they follow whoever leads. Nodoka will fit the bill perfectly. Nodoka was the mother of Ranma, so she should know, right? She was a mother figure that the Tendos girls, Ukyou, Shampoo, and Kodatchi (on par with her) were looking for. She has a high status family, strong willed, and was what was consider a Lady (has the Honor Sword). In short they looked up to her. When she started to subtly slander Ranma it was taken as a cue for them to do the same.

The section of the meeting with the gods is just that...a meeting to tell them the situation. Just like children the other deities wanted amusement since they will live practically forever. Kami does permit them to make few changes, but it must be SUBTLE with no direct interference in the lives of mortals. He s giving them the freedom to make mistakes, but if it gets too much then He will take matters into His own hands. He has stopped them, but what happens in the aftermath will be totally up to Ranma. There will be some interaction with the deities, but that's for later.

It might seem cruel, but Kami will not change time just for one person. As many people would say, If life throws you lemons then squirt it in the eyes of your enemies and beat the crap out of them. Shit does happen so Ranma will have deal with the dirty laundry.


	7. Chapter 4

CHAOS SQUARED - FIRST ARC

Chapter 5

Confrontation

He took so long that he heard a voice, "Ranma?" It was Kasumi.

Not lifting his head, he said, "Kasumi, we need to talk..."

As Ranma looked onward to Kasumi. Despite her being serene all the time, he could see the almost hooded gaze that he had seen more on Nabiki. He studied his opponent from when she had walked up to him and had seen the things he had missed.

She walked like a martial artist. A very good one. Her strides were fluid as if she was flowing than walking. Her eyes were giving the aura of confidence and intelligence. The very look that Nabiki had, but more focussed. As more and more of his views of Kasumi changed, he realized in that instance that she had royally fooled him.

He may be a socially lacking, but she approached like a predator as his mind started going into battle mode.

Kasumi or mist/fog. It was an appropriate name. She had cast one on herself to obscure everybody's view of her. Assessment was that she was an very intelligent person and an exceptional actress to keep up the appearance of a perfect housewife.

Her deception was superb and now he was about to return the favour. He suspected that everyone, well almost everyone was against him, and like a battle plan his mind finally had worked it out as he saw the tactics that she used. A spy who actually led his enemies. First flood him with bad news so that she is the only one who is in his confidence and then go for the jugular the next second. As he really looked at her, many things became clear. She always worked behind the scenes with his mother. They were truly effective when he was clueless.

With her sunny disposition, she asked, "What about Ranma-kun?"

Ranma smiled, "Oh about why did you do this to me?"

Her smile never faltered, "Do what?"

His smiled never faltered either, "About crippling me."

"Oh my...You don't think...?"

If he didn't know better, she would have fooled him. "I know you did. If anything did happen, you would have known because everyone would have talked about it." in a voice of absolute confidence and for good measure his arrogance to get the ball rolling. He had seen her shell start to break over the last few months, but never knew what lay underneath it. Now he did.

As he continued, he had to make it more plausible of the Ranma of old, "I also know about the trading cards and manga (leaving out the hentai stuff and his mother) that Nabiki had been selling. Why didn't I see any of the money that have come in and by the way the others were telling me, it was a hot item."

She was about to protest again when she saw he would have none of it. Her eyes suddenly dropped the trademark sunny look and got realistic. This was a thinking Ranma, he was still a jerk, but now more dangerous. He would have to be taken care of. This was the last straw for her, she was tired of pretending to be the perfect homemaker. She smiled as she contemplated of pleasure of showing him the error of his ways when playing hardball with her.

"How did you know?" she asked.

"It all came together when I put together all the clues...you still didn't answer my question of why you did it." he said.

She thought about his answer and saw the open expression on his face, "He really did figure it out."

In a louder voice, she said, "Because you could never decide which to marry. Honour had to be satisfied and you dishonoured yourself when you didn't do anything about it." her voice had gotten louder. "You are an arrogant jerk and only a second rate martial artist."

"It figures." he thought, "She like everyone else had complete ignored that she and Nabiki made that very situation by rejecting Ranma without giving him a chance and again blaming him if he didn't meet their definition of honour." But he said outloud, "What do you mean second rate? Yooou couldn't have done better than me." He smirked his best, but inside he knew that he was still better than her even now.

"What do you mean?" she said as her anger started to boil and with hooded eyes, "I saw you practice and fight. I can tell you right now that I am more than a match for you then." smiling now a very cruel and superior look, AHeck, Akane is more than a match for you then, but she held herself back. She didn't even really need the Mother's Mallot."

Another thing clicked in Ranma's mind was the fact that he now understood her smile now. It was one of smiling at an insider's joke. She gave away more information than she possible knew. He did suspected that Akane could be that good and with her hints, he was sure of it now, but if Akane was then he presumed that Kasumi would be better. Much better. A challenge had been made and he hid his gleam in his eye.

"You beat Saffron, but it was a lucky victory. The Amazons told you that the Hiryu Shorten Ha was made for Saffron and you didn't use it when you had gotten your first chance, you used it at your last chance and almost killed Akane, you moron!"

'Typical.' he thought, 'A back seat fighter, completely forgetting that she wasn't there or she would have known that a that time, it was his only chance.' He was also surprised that they didn't tell her the weakness of the move. It would have sucked Saffron's power, but with his power of flight, he was strong enough to just fly out of the range of the tornado, even at that stage.

"You don't deserve any of the money we have made from you. You insensitive jerk!" She turned away and was about to walk out, but gave a parting shot to him with a cruel smile, "You will work for us for the rest of your..." as she looked at him with loathing "...pathetic life. No one will believe that you were innocent. Heck, everyone in Nerima uses your name as a 'curse.'"

Without knowing, she gave him the full view of the side of her that he had never seen before. The manipulative and cunning that made Nabiki look like an innocent merchant. Hiding it, he kept up the act, "No I won't! I promise you that I will get you back for all that you have done to me!"

"Yes you will. Nabiki asked that all the bills be paid when you are discharged. She will add the interest of paying them to your already huge tab. She could just tell them that you and your worthless father will pay for it." She saw his stubborn expression and gave an ominous smile, if you don't, I have other ways of making you do it." With that she started to walk out of the room.

He smiled inside. She thought she had him exactly where she wanted him and was squeezing him for what he was worth. The classic overconfidence. He refrained from mentioning the connection with his mother as it would undoubtedly this was her trump card. This time, it wasn't an act. With the betrayal in his eyes that she would misinterpret as a brave front, Ranma yelled in a petulant tone, "Don't come back her again!"

"Don't worry, I won't be in your presence as long as I have to, but you will pay for this." she said with a last look of disgust and she walked out. She suddenly found that no one would look at her anymore. Knowing the gig was up, she walked with dignity out the door. She never suspected that Ranma had set her up, thinking that he was too stupid for such a thing and herself too smart.

When Kasumi left, she never suspected that the damage she intended to inflict on Ranma would backfire. The informal grapevine was that fast and the story about Kasumi was almost made a legend in the hospital and with the more powerful people staying in the hospital.

A few minutes later, the Head Nurse and Ryouga walked in. They were both surprised that he wasn't looking lost or scared, but had both a hurt and satisfied expression on his face. Ryouga had never seen Kasumi that way. He knew from the conversation of the fiancees that Kasumi was smart. It wasn't until he saw her face that he truly realized how she fooled him.

Ranma, not surprised at Ryouga, asked him, "Where were you?"

Ryouga said, "Just outside the room, I can't believe she was like that."

"So you didn't get lost?"

"What do you mean LOST!"

"Calm down, man. I mean that usually you get lost in the first few minutes, but now you stayed here for the last few weeks and also right now came back to my room with no problems. YOU actually lead the head nurse here."

"..." Ryouga thought then he realized that he didn't get lost, "How did I do that?"

Ranma smiled a big smile as he put his chin in his fist, "Hmm...I got a theory, but only a theory. First...it occurred to me at the only time you DIDN'T get lost. I remember that it was when we went on the school picnic back in junior high near Mt. Fuji."

"Yeah, I remember that, it was great with all the food we could eat." Ryouga said as he smiled at the memory.

"At that time, you weren't obsessed with something or depressed or even angry. You were happy and let things as they come. When you came here, you were mostly shocked. I saw you walk to the washroom and sleep on the couch without losing your way there."

Ryouga thought about it hard and couldn't see any flaw in it. He had left and gotten back to to where he had wanted to be without being lost. His face took on a more thoughtful look then he cracked a smile. Everyone including himself had thought it was a Hibiki trait, but he realized that it may be a mindset. Maybe being too focused or preoccupied on the negative side had made him what was going on around him. Perhaps it did produce a defeatest attitude. His parents and siblings were also depressed about their directional disability. He will have to tell them the next time he saw them... in a few months.

"But." Ranma continued, "It still doesn't explain how you suddenly get to (shrugging) Siberia or Europe in a few days instead of the months it should take for you to trek there by yourself. The other theory is that you might have an innate ability to go anywhere in an instant and you and your family may be able to control it or at least stop the random travelling."

Again, Ryouga thought about this. In an obscure way, it actually made sense. How could he suddenly be a thousand miles away in a second. Finding people who spoke German one day and Chinese the next should have told him something, but he never thought about it.

Ranma then turned to the Head Nurse and said, "I'm sorry about this..."

"Don't worry about it. (taking a deep breath) Since you are going to be working the hospital, you might as well get to know my name. It's Ka Heem, but people just call me Cream." said the head nurse.

"Ok, Cream. It's just that my life is now literally upside down now. Before it was just crazy, but straightforward. Now, everything has changed. Most of the people that I cared about aren't who I thought they were. but they made two mistakes."

"They did? What were they?" asked Cream, a bit puzzled, but not Ryouga, he knew...

As Ranma smiled with a very far away look, "The first is that I always keep my promises...and the other is that I NEVER lose when it counts." Both Ryouga and Cream knew which promise it was because they heard him from in the hall, but Cream smiled dubiously at the comment because it seemed to her that it was the confidence of the young. On the other hand, only Ryouga knew how true both of them were because he witnessed both of them firsthand.

It was a tiring day for everyone and Cream saw the signs that that Ranma was getting tired and she ushered Ryouga out.

It was only after a few minutes that Dr. Tofu came in.

Ranma had one look on his face and thought, 'Crap. He knows.'

Even though he had bad feelings with Kasumi, he didn't want Dr. Tofu to be hurt that bad.

Before he could open his mouth, Dr. Tofu spoke in a frighteningly calm manner, "You know. I really never thought that Kasumi could be like that. She used to be the nicest and sweetest girl that anyone could know. I think over time, I did fall in love with the person I... thought was Kasumi." He stopped, pursed his lips and seemed to gather his thought before shaking his head. "You never really know a person do you Ranma unless they trust you." Dr. Tofu said before leaving.

Ranma remained silent. There was nothing he could do for the good doctor. Well, nothing that would matter to him anyway.

He laid there quietly and was thought about everyone, but couldn't really believe how different people were from what they presented to him. It was then that emotional exhaustion had hit him. He was tired, very tired. Emotionally rung out. Always the martial artist, it drove home how much of a weakness it was to rely on emotions, even without using chi. He also in a way he felt all the secrets swirling around him lessened and a very large part of the invisible weight of honour that had always accompanied him had been lifted somewhat. Secrets were coming out and again he was in the middle of it, but for the first time he had taken steps to take care of it.

The gist of his life kept coming at him. All of them were against him. It still amazed him what a few words could do. Subtly. Kasumi gave away more information than she could imagine, unlike Nabiki. She explained why the rumours were there. To cut him off from everything and to make him be at their mercy. Before twisting meanings by saying its his choice to chose a fiancee, but then pressing their impressions and ideals on him and throw in THEIR honour down his throat for him to choose. Knowing fully that despite everything, he will take the greatest burden of the supposed choice.

If this was going to be his life then, it was time for him to run his life.

As his mind drifted over the people who he thought he knew,

Akane. As he suspected, a very proficient martial artist. She was still the angry tomboy, but had a sneakiness like Nabiki that seemed to be a Tendo trait. Two-timer. Also who knew the Umisenken. What else is she hiding?

Kasumi. Very good at appearing to be only the housewife type, disguising her more Nabiki like traits, but more domineering than Nabiki. As he though back, he saw telltale signs that she was better than Akane and maybe as good as he was before Saffron. To think that he confided sometimes to her and that she had to be disgusted inside. She is the one of the most brillant actress that he had ever seen, but she seemed to forget that it takes two to tango and Akane did not every try for a relationship.

Tendo Nabiki. Still mercenary, but if what Ryouga heard was true then she might be the odd one out. She actually seemed to be the one who was the most sincere and honourable of the lot. The most straightforward motive was to keep the family dojo afloat. He could respect that. He always knew where she stood. She may have done many things, but never went over the line. She even apologized a few times when she got close to the line.

Shampoo. Fabulous acting job. Give her an American Acadamy Award. She totally fooled him with her the bubbly bubble headed act. He never knew that she wasn't interested in him and had a boyfriend back home. Still, it seemed that her honour seemed to be the only thing that even remotely interests her. Like Nabiki, she had a straightforward motive.

Ukyou. He could only shake his head. It had devastated him a two weeks ago when it was made clear to him that she pretended to be his friend, but immediately dropping him after her honour had been restored to her. As he sought for a calm breath from the sob that choked him, he thought of the many times that he had confided in her like Kasumi and how she must have been disgusted at him inside. At the same time, he wasn't as forgiving for her blaming him for what he did at six year old. How in the world would a six year old know about fiancees and marriage?

Kodachi. Who cares, but it was an eye opener to find out that she wasn't insane. Very sneaky and very controlling bored rich kid who drugged her brother for her own ends.

Hinako. His teacher, if wasn't a part of the plot then knew what would happen and did nothing. She was at the house enough times and were really friendly to the Tendo women. At least she had the decency not to be involved the 'incident'.

As huge sigh emerged out of him as he started to feel depressed. The biggest surprise was his mother. She said that she accepted him and that the seppuku contract was no more, but now she was probably the real mastermind. The others could have logically waited for him to decide because he was only seventeen and not yet out of high school. His mother must have pushed for it. She was a traditional woman who was so concerned with honour that she would cripple her own son to keep it. She showed no remorse in making him go into servitude for her honour or go back on it on a techicality like the seppuku contract when she kept on changing her mind if was manly or not...every time he met her.

Besides, if their fathers had every tried to just marry them off, they would have been in LEO from Akane's mallet and his fist faster than they could say, "Not your own father!" or "ungrateful boy!"

It was strange that Cologne seemed better when viewed against the others. She was truly one who hadn't been trying to do anything bad to him. She was still the Old Ghoul, but he could understand her. As he thought about it more, he could see that she didn't have to teach him those martial arts techniques, but also noticed her attitude change for the better the last months after the failed wedding when he controlled his mouth a bit more.

Ranma still lay there in silence. The dawn light had just come through the window as he went over what he had just heard. The petty squabbles about honour to those who didn't know the meaning of the word.

A martial artist followed the Code. Loyalty, benevolence, bravery, self control and honour above life. The first four he understood, but the fifth made him pause.

The main question was what was honour and by whose definition was it by. His mother had the Satome's honour. It was drilled into him that the present generation was only borrowing their ancestor's names and we must give more honour it, leave it untarnished or redeem it. By the actions of Genma, he had tarnished it beyond belief and it spilled over to him. More to the point, his real concern was the question if he still wanted to be a Satome.

Obviously, his mother's view of a "Man Among Men" was perverted. She actually had approved of what Happosai did and she wanted Ranma to peep on women to be manly and also to go into servitude for Akane. At the same time, she gave him no chance at being honourable and now seemed to bar his way to be only what she wanted, honourable or not.

It would be dishonourable to become a ronin, but what did his name ever do for him. He was always away from Japan for almost two thirds of his life. Did he even care about HONOUR. Everybody was disgusted by Genma and it spilled onto him also. Also during the training trip, he always tried to strive for HONOUR, but now he finds out that almost everything he did was a set up to make him fail.

'Was it WORTH it to ME?' he thought and then shook his head as he didn't know.

As he mulled over these thoughts. He was beginning to realize that past his life was crap. Since his near death injuries, he had lost much more than his freedom and now was looking at a life of servitude for those who manipulated honour, but with the longer he stayed here. He began to realize that he didn't really understand what honour really was until the nurse started teaching the children about the facts of life. Despite the rumours that still swirled around him, he felt that he had the real respect of the hospital staff and patients, a lot more than in his old life. They saw him for who he is and not what people wanted him to turn into.

That had started him thinking about his life in general and if someone had looked into his mind they would have seen the rusted gears of his mind shaking off the cobwebs and rust. He wasn't the person that came into the hospital, one dimensional, now a person who was more complex than even he realized. A stray thought popped into his head and wouldn't go away. It was that if the main women in his life weren't who they seem, how about the men.

Soun. Now that he knew how his daughters were, he could fully realize that he was totally under their thumb. A mere figurehead and no wonder why he was so emotional and didn't teach, but then Ranma realized that his daughters had never let him do anything for himself. He even heard Kasumi scold him for even getting himself a cup of tea and not let her do it for him.

Ryouga. At least he helped Ryouga about his directional problem so that Ryouga didn't get lost as much and is now a real friend than an enemy.

Mousse. He don't know yet. Now that he was out of the picture for Shampooo, he was a more sensible guy.

Kuno. He now knew that Kuno wasn't insane. Only his sister's drugs kept him that way. He did meet him only once when he wasn't on the drugs and he turned out to be a surprisingly nice person and profusely apologized for his behaviour.

Ah, Sasuke. The loyal ninja servant. Hiding his true talents like himself from the Kunos under the fascade of being inept, but was more of a friend than his "best friend Ucchan".

Happosai. To write him off would be a mistake. Yes, Happosai did do panty raids, but when he was done and thought no one was looking, Ranma saw pain. Yes pain and guilt. Taking women's ki was probably very easy to him and he had a ready supply of it. It also made him lazy in increasing his own ki by himself. When Ranma was beat Saffron, he felt like a god with all that ki. Sweet and when it was over Ranma alway wanted more. It was like a drug to him and he supposed it was the same to Happosai when needed his fixes. Still in that train of thought, Ranma felt, in a way, sorry for him, but Happosai, despite everything, was a great martial artist, but did do this to himself and wasn't strong enough to resist after so many centuries of groping.

Finally, Genma. The fat and lazy panda had done many harmful deeds to him, but as he looked deep into himself for the good or useful things his father had done for him.

As he was about to give up, something clicked in his mind. He noticed that no one could lie to him and knew if they were. There were clues, but he let himself be blinded to that would have let him figure out the people who were truly his enemies and they weren't what they seem to be. He shook his head when he remembered one of his sensei saying, "People have 20/20 in hindsight, not foresight."

Other than martial arts moves, he remembered each day in detail when he really needed to know. The wonder of this new thing that he had overlooked. His father drilled him to memorize each move or strategy no matter what kind of pain or distraction he was in. As he went back in his mind, he started to remember details and incidents that he had thought he had forgotten. He could remember details of not just martial arts, but of his life in general, the boring as well as the exciting came to him with equal clarity. He tried to remember the term used...a trained photographic memory, but more with the feelings and sensations. He realized that it was a gift, but also a curse because he could remember everything he did right and, but couldn't forget anything he did wrong, no matter how horrible.

As he had widened his horizons n the hospital, he looked back to the first day at the Tendos. Most of all he saw Akane's reaction to him when he changed, all of Nabiki's remarks, the times when Kasumi acted out of character and finally, what his mother had said about being a man and realized that he didn't want what they wanted.

Ironically, the most vivid memory was of a long past event. It was really the only time he had ever seen his father be truly serious and honourable. It was a time before Jusenkyo when his father suddenly said in the most serious tone he had.

Flashback

"Ranma, I have finally seen you come into your own." Genma said then paused as he looked into the sky for a very long time. The pause was stretching longer and just when he thought that the old man had really lost it, he started again, "It is now time for me to give you these. It was taught to me by a great man...a very great man.

A serious pause then continued, "One who was unjustly wronged. He was my friend when I was younger and before you were born. These are moves that he had perfected for his own school. A school that was never founded. There will be other moves that I will teach you and you must learn them for THEY ARE YOUR HERITAGE. Never forget ..." as he turned to Ranma, "...what you feel is right.

Looking Ranma straight into the eye, he said, "You may laugh at me for saying this, but very early on I have found that honour is what you make of it, not what other people make of it. It is true that what people think gives you honour, but in the world, I have seen the few evil people trump over many good people because they manipulate honour. A bad rumour and planted material had toppled many good and innocent people because others covert what they want or for revenge of some slight generations ago and didn't tell their victims or because no one stood up for it.

"To people who wanted to believe it, the rumours were the truth even though there was no proof or even had proof to the contrary that they had ever did the deed. You see, for people, you are guilty and cannot be totally be proven innocent. They expect it and that is why evil people gett away with it.

"Ranma, never judge someone because of a rumour. Discard the truth because people can believe a lie and say it is the truth, but always know what happened and why without what other people THINK happened."

He blinked. This wasn't the idiotic, greedy father he always had, but a totally different person. The tone and posture of his father told him of the importance of what he was about to teach him.

The training after that was gruelling. Each move was like a very long katas that his father taught him and told him to use it as a last resort. At the time, they were simple looking katas that seemed to build up the strength of the entire body and that of the mind. Different moves after that required different parts of the katas. As Ranma flew into the katas, they all seem to flow into a single style.

The Satome Forbidden Techniques were only a start, not the core of the moves. It was a way of "testing" the person to see if they would match up to it. The master would see what the person would do with those techniques. The next real moves were followed by flowing movements and then the still movements. It wasn't the end.

'There are Forbidden Techiques?' Ranma thought, 'When the heck would he have told me?'

Flashback end

But now seeing them in a new light, his mind went over them and saw the pattern. Perhaps his father's biggest gift, as he saw the katas that made up the Satome Anything Goes Style. The moves looked like unarmed combat styles, but on a closer look, it was really made for the weapons. Ki techniques, drilling in hit and run, and finally a one strike technique that he perfected using ki. The use of ki to produce any type of weapons by merely focusing on the form. The vaccum blades were only one example of it. It can be changed at will to many forms. It can also be used as a melee weapon. All were interchangeable and could be used in combination. He realized that a lot of his father's Forbidden Moves may be based on these other techniques to make a truly formidable style. Even though Genma thought weapons were weak, this was a truly great weapon's art.

Another thought came up, if this was such a formable style then why did he not incorporate it in the Satome Anything Goes Style? As he pondered, he suddenly realized that despite how honourless his father was, he must have truly respected his friend not to take advantage of it. For really the only time in his later life, he felt truly humbled by his father and especially to the friend he so respected.

Inspiration then struck him. Most of the moves were ki techniques with the sword. Combining the Satome Forbidden moves with the last part of the katas does produce an awesome force even without moving around. For the first time in a very long time, he smiled as he could see some hope for the future.

Author notes:

Nuff said. 


	8. Chapter 5

CHAOS SQUARED - FIRST ARC

Chapter 5

Hidden Depths and Talents

As he relaxed, he found one day that picking up the Sammi's pet or seeing a cat in general didn't elicit a fear anywhere near the level to trigger the Nekkoken. As the fear of cats was slowly fading, he was puzzled why it happened now and not over the years until he remembered that over the months of his controlling of his fear had lessened the impact of the cats. He realized that as he was actually getting used to cat-like things. Unknown to him, he started to take on some cat-like traits, physical enhancement aside, when he wasn't in the Nekkoken. Ryouga noticed it as Ranma would laze around in the sun and becoming more active at night. Also Ranma would hide and pounce on the children, tickling them from his wheelchair, and make them squeal with laughter and also be more protective of Sammi.

"Hmm...what happened? Before at the mere sight of a cat, I would go into the Nekkoken. Right now, I feel that they aren't more dangerous than a... duckor a pig." Ranma smiled at that thought.

Flashback to earlier in the hospital stay in the yard

Popping out of nowhere, Ranma saw another Ghost Cat, Notatsu-Neko.

As predicted, Ranma went into the Neko Ken, but couldn't move his legs. Neko-Ranma was surprised when he attacked with just his hands and nothing happened. It was then that they had a conversation as to why he was acting like a cat. The conversation consisted of meows.

What happened next took Neko-Ranam and Kotatsu-Neko. As he accidentally came too close to Neko-Ranma, he actually got sucked into the other's body.

Kotatsu-Neko looked around and found darkness. He knew that something should have been there until he saw THEM. Eyes. Teeth. Claws. They were all around him and slashing all around him. Even though it was not doing any damage to him, it HURT! It was in this nightmare that he found a door. He ran to it and threw himself throught it and shut it again. Surprisingly he found a little boy huddled in a corner. It actually looked like a chibi version of Neko-Ranma.

It was then that he understood what had happened. The Neko Ken had produced a... hole in Ranma's soul. He entered because he was a spirit. He was totally surprised that he was not WORSE than before. Mental trauma of an excruciating nature was required to even hurt a soul with this kind of strength. This must have been beyond that as he had looked at the damage. He marveled that the boy was even sane.

It might have been an infinite amount of time or maybe even a mere moment when he resolved to help him. It took him a while to corner and capture the boy, but he did it. He also knew that the unfamiliarity of confronting something else and the fear that crippled him was the only thing that made him vulnerable to him. He took a very long time in soothing the boy enough to tell him what happened.

When he did, Kotatsu-Neko thought about how to help him and get revenge on the fat man of a father, but not before helping him out. He knew that chibi-Ranma had to confront his fear or he would probably be possessed.

It was a very long time had passed before he could convince that since he was a cat, the others could be the same way. As chibi-Ranma scrunched his face in thought, he knew that it would take as long as it took. It was touch and go before chibi-Ranma actually got up and opened the door that locked away the Neko Ken. As expected, one look in the room with evil eyes, teeth and claws make chibi-Ranma close it again, but he would not let it happen. He told him that the cats were trapped as he was and the only way for them to be free was for him to do it. They were angry at him for that.

When chibi-Ranma heard this, he went and opened the door, but not without a deep breath.

Kotatsu-Neko marveled at this. A five year old child was confronting what full grown adults could not and most times would not.

The attack was on and chibi-Ranma weathered the storm until they saw Kotatsu-Neko protecting him. At that point, a black and white cat came out and meowed, "Why do you protect this one that trap us here?"

Kotatsu-Neko meowed back, "Because he is a kitten who did not know that he did that to you. All he knew was that mean cats had tried to eat him."

Taken aback, there was murmuring in the background as some other cats came out.

The interrogation went on through Kotatsu-Neko until the cats were satisfied that the chibi-Ranma meant no harm and that they were too quick to judge him by what the big fat man did to them.

As the shadows fell away as the cats' anger faded, chibi-Ranma could see that there were hundreds of cat souls and he felt guilty about their deaths and imprisonment. The black and white cat dismissed that concern as he said that they were as much to blame as he was. They could have left at any time if they just thought it out.

By this time, chibi-Ranma's fear had subsided and was curiously petting the black and white cat. Suddenly, by the hundreds, they came up to him to be petted.

Kotatsu-Neko smiled, as he knew that it was the hundreds of cat souls that actually protected chibi-Ranma from possession. He was very surprised that they stayed because the hole was big enough for them to leave. It was after they left that he was open for possession.

He gathered from the other cats that they actually fought a few Demons a few times and won. Demons may be power hungry, but the mauling by hundreds of cats were too much pain for too little gain. They would go for easier prey.

Before the cat souls departed, the black and white cat bestowed one gift on chibi-Ranma. Suddenly, even to the black and white cat and Notatsu-Neko's surprise, tiny ball of lights had emerged from every cat soul and entered chibi-Ranma's. Changes could be seen as cat ears and paws started to form on his soul. His eyes were even slitted.

Solemnly, the cat spirit said directly to chibi-Ranma, "We have given you a blessing and part of our souls for you."

Kotatsu-Neko was stunned when he hear chibi-Ranma meowed, "Yes sir."

He realized the significance of it. From what chibi-Ranma had told him about the Neko Ken, what kind of abilities would he gain from the hundreds of cat souls? Only time would tell. He probably would be more powerful, but it was now up to him to teach him how to use it.

The black and white cat urged Kotatsu-Neko to leave with them because the trauma was healing, the hole would close up.

They were the last ones and barely made it out before the hole closed up.

When Ranma woke up he thought it was a really weird dream until he saw Kotatsu-Neko who confirmed that it was not. He marveled that he could actually look at a cat and not freak out. They talked long into the night.

Out of it all Kotatsu-Neko liked Ranma and visa versa. The affection that Kotatsu-Neko had for Ranma increased when he found that Ranma could still produce a more powerful ki claws. Kotatsu-Neko was totally surprised that he was actually more powerful, ten times more. It seemed that the gift of the Neko Ken was not the only one. They trained to use the powers until he was proficient with it. Ranma did not want to be a menace. The point was made clear when he picked up a small stone in the park and he crushed it by accident.

End of Flashback

The companionship that followed affected Ranma as no other, even if no one could see him. Here was someone who was a total stranger and not even human who was kinder to him than his parents and even his "closest" friends combined. The spirit had no real ulterior motive than to help him out and listened to him without making judgments on him, but commented on what could have been done better.

Kotatsu-Neko gave him one piece of advice that has served him well. He said that the only thing that limits people are what they think they could do. He told Ranma that the reason was that most of the obligations were not of his doing, but that of his father's or someone else. No one, except his mother, had tried to actually help him when they could have easily done so. The people he though he could depended on like Ukyou, Kasumi, and especially Akane. They had defined him in their own small world when they should have helped him in his own.

It would have puzzled Ranma until Kotatsu-Neko gave a few examples.

Kotatsu-Neko said that Ranma knew that he had atrocious writing or doing really anything elegant, but when he had to have do it well he could. He had the Anything Goes Calligraphy, Ballroom Dancing, Tea Ceremony and of course Shogi. He had shown that he could do them well, but why did he not do that in his everyday life?

The main reason was that people expect him to be the macho jock and he had responded like in martial arts. He reacted than thought.

Also, they really have nothing to do with martial arts, yet he learned them all and modified them as well. What would happen if he used his techniques for other things like Speed Reading, Computer Programming and the more academic studies? It seemed that the sky could be the limit for Ranma if he actually put his mind to it.

The problem was that he was so focused on martial arts that he had to have time to himself to "reset" himself. His father had dominated his life for so long that he learned to react and not think, which was fine for fighting, but not anything else.

As with all good things, Kotatsu-Neko had to leave, but Ranma was grateful to him.

Despite his resolution, it took him a long time with the help of the nurses and children to get over his troubles with his life. They constantly tried to get him out of his depression and it worked. The old Satome "never say die" attitude slowly returned, but not the arrogance. He still worried about Sammi. The bout that lead to her being left in bed seemed to have passed. He resolved to look into the matter.

He had learned the names of the children and their problems. It had taken him some time to get used to having a 'real' job, but he found that even with his job and training, he still had free time on his hands so he started visiting some of the other patients. Most of the famous people welcomed him when he was unimpressed by their status or never heard of them. He treated them like regular people and they liked his charm. They even saw his curse in action and thought it was cool. They disregarded the rumours as the nurses filled them in that it was the other way around. They were sympathetic with him because many of them had been though it as well and knew that rumours had the power to kill a career. A few were miffed and threw him out, the Divas he called them, or those who were afraid of his curse or because they actually believed the rumours, even with evidence to the contrary. He certainly didn't fit in their perfect little world.

He found that most came here to re-cooperate because their private lives were invaded by stalkers or the media. Most of the people they knew always wanted things from them, but Ranma was refreshing in that he ask only of their friendship.

He got to know a lot of famous people from outside the country. He found that despite their status or foreignness, they treated him a friend and not as a person to be pitied.

Before he would have been like them if he was confronted by a person in a wheelchair or a crutch and who changed genders with water, but now that he was in their shoes he could see the snubs and it hurt even more keenly because of the additional handicap.

Many of the patients couldn't speak Japanese. He could converse with very broken English. He found many languages, which included French, German, Mandarin, Cantonese as well as were spoken. If anything, they taught him to speak some of their language for easier conversation. They laughed at his mistakes, but were astounded at how much he picked up. What astounded them was that in a seemingly small period of time, he could converse with them passably in their language and it improved a little every day. As he loosened up, he spoke more fluently as time went on. He didn't even notice the change, but everyone else did. The nurses could see him maturing into a fine young man.

From his almost disastrous first meeting with the nurses, it was his way with the children, his friendliness and charm was irresistible. Many of them were taking second looks and sneaking peeks when they thought he wasn't looking. It became a regular sight for them to see him whizzing by at breakneck speed, but deftly avoiding hit anything or anyone. For the most part, the people only felt a whipping wind when he passed.

Despite his bright front, he found that he had to confide to someone about his life who was more objective. Someone who wasn't part of his old life, someone he could trust. He picked Cream because out of all the people he knew, he sensed that she would be the only one who probably would understand the most. There was a sadness that clung to her like him as if some great tragedy had befallen her.

For Cream, she found for the first time in a very long time that she had found herself responding to him emotionally as he unfolded his life story to her. She had kept herself in a shell after what happened to her. When she heard the whole story, the outrage she felt at such an action of is mother and the other women in his life increased threefold.

"If what he says is true then I will have to take steps that his enemies don't interfere in his recovery." Cream thought.

"Genma had given so many debts on Ranma's honour and his mother wrecking his life. I can't believe that his mother would say that Ranma had stained her honour and thought that she had the power to make Ranma kill himself to clean the Satome honour. It seems to me that SHE was the one who stained his honour." Cream thought bitterly as she was still appalled at what his mother did, "The fact that she had accepted the seppeuku contract that Genma made for himself and Ranma to be a 'Man Among Men' and had known at that time how honourless Genma. Taken as a whole, the contract couldn't be based on honour since Genma had no honour, but she seemed to use it against Ranma more than anyone else. Why did she hate him so much?"

"Hmm...Ranma?" asked Cream.

"Yes?" Ranma replied.

"I think I may have a small solution for you with the contract..." said Cream and she told him of her plan.

After she was finished, he sat there in silence and contemplated the whole of his choices. She could see his face contorting into many different expressions, never settlling on one for more than a second. When she thought he was too lost in thought, he startled her when he said, "Arigato, Cream. But I fear that I have to take care of other matters that will determine if I will accept your offer and I hope that the offer will still stand when I am done."

Cream nodded, "The offer will still stand." She was amazed at the resilency of this young man, anyone else would have been totally beaten or had a nervous breakdown.

They both sat in silence for a very long time after that.

It was after another week that reality hit him in the form of Kuno. He was near one of the windows in a patient's room when a ruckus came. A familiar yell came, "Oh my Nursing Goddesses, I will free you from the clutches of the vile Satome!" as he rushed up the front stairs of the hospital which were promptly cut off as he was booted to the stratosphere by the nurses on duty, despite the fact that he wielded an actual katana.

Sasuke came and apologized again. Some new drug Kodachi had made had Kuno becoming more delusional and sprouting out that Satome's stay in the hospital was only a trick to truly enspell the Nurse Goddesses.

Ranma then realized that when he got out, he will have to face the most dangerous people he had ever met in his young life and will be at a severe advantage. His moves were based more on kicks to change positions and without his legs, he couldn't move very well. His mother, Kasumi and Akane were truly his enemies. Nabiki, he didn't know. She was part of it, but she seemed like the front person to them. Shampoo isn't a problem. The Amazons will just annul the engagement. Ukyou just wants her name cleared and wants money so that more dishonour will be on his head.

As he thought things over, a question forms in his mind, "What does he have to offer to anyone in the future?" It was a dreaded question that he couldn't find an answer to. He knew how to deal with fights, but with his future in the balance, he had to know where he was headed.

After agonizing over the chaos called his life, he finally knew where to start from, at the beginning. Martial arts will always be part of his life, whether he wanted it or not. He needed to defend himself against his enemies.

His foes, his former fiancees, Nabiki and Kasumi and his mother. They had better resources, education and probably martial arts now that he was crippled. He needed to counter that. He needed an edge. He had to confront them on his terms.

They were all better in the path that Genma kept steering him away from. Life. He needed to improve in all the areas neglected in his life, which meant everything including martial arts. He was glad of the training he received before Jusenkyo. The formidable style was also versatile. It WILL give him time to form new techniques for him to us a he is unable to use the Satome Anything Goes Style. It relied on agility and kicks to change positions. He now had get a method to even get up a flight of stairs.

Added to that was his confused state because of a particular nurse that Cream introduced to him weeks ago. The nurse's name was Urd and she helped him out a lot. He never really knew why she always had this peculiar smile when she saw him or the way her eyes became hooded when she saw Rei. Maybe Rei reminded her of someone who she didn't like. He didn't think it was personal.

She was truly the first person to truly take him for who he was and not judge him like everyone else, even Cream took some time to get adjusted to his curse. Urd took it in stride and for the first time he felt like someone actually cared about him and not what he could do for them.

He still remembered the first time Cream introduced her to him...

He was with Ryouga when Cream came bouncing in on her staff. She was followed by what he would call THE sexiest person he ever seen, despite the fact that she was a gaijin and that he wasn't really attracted to them.

She didn't walk in as glided in on those long, long, loooooooooooong legs, but he could feel more POWER coming from her than even Saffron had. Despite this, he felt no danger from her instead he was surprised to feel comfort from her. He felt like he knew her for...forever

She was in a nurse's uniform, but it didn't do a thing to hide her curves. The open top button showed an amazing amount of cleavage. On anyone else, it would have looked tacky and overblown, but instead, it enhanced her beauty instead of detracting from it. Her hair was so pale, it seemed almost white, but not quite. Her dark tan made her look exotic, but yet very earthly. It was when she smiled that the true damage was done. The smile embodied the very essence of sexy, but couldn't cover her good heart.

At that point, Ryouga couldn't take it anymore. He had a torrential nosebleed and passed out.

Ranma almost passed out himself despite seeing Shampoo, Ukyou and Ms. Hinako in skimpier attire when she purred, "Hello Ranma, my name is Urd and I would like to get to know you better." and he blushed and almost had a huge nosebleed.

End of flashback

At that very moment, that certain goddess was remembering that same moment.

Flashback

As she stood in front of Father's desk, Father, said, "Urd, do you know why you were summoned her?"

"No, Father." she replied

"You are here because of a mortal, Ranma Satome. The irresponsibility of my Children in favouring Akane had forced me to take drastic action. I have decreed that he is now a Chaos Nexus. (Urd's eyes widened, she couldn't believe it. A Chaos Nexus was a thing where the threads of the universe are tangled. It literally meant that he could make the impossible possible. A deadly force if it was in the wrong hands. It makes the bearer miserable if not controlled because of the craziness. Why would Father had done this?) You have been acquainted with him, you will help him become accustomed to his new life."

"Yes Father." she said as she stood up straighter, trying to remember where and when she met him.

"That is all" as her Father turned back to his paperwork.

She pondered a bit as to who was Ranma before she left, but was too occupied to see Him smile.

After reading the huge amount of data in the Yggdrasil System about Ranma's life, Urd was pissed at those people who betrayed him, especially Akane and his own mother. As she looked into Ranma mother's life, she shook her head in disgust. So, it wasn't a match made in Heaven.

As she was lost in thought, Ranma took the opportunity to study her. At first, he was blinded by her sexiness, but for the first time, he actually studied her closely, (not that closely!). Unlike his fiancees, he did feel respect coming from her and he responded in kind. Once upon a time, he would have had to take a day in understanding what had just happened. He found this transition easier and therefore saw immediately her intelligence and a real compassion for him.

Despite his awkwardness with the opposite sex, he found himself relaxing with her, it was something that he never did with anyone else, knowingly with a female. He just smiled. He usually was either oblivious to girls or panicking over them, never really at ease with them.

As she broke out of her thoughts, she saw him studying her with a relaxed smile. She could tell it was rusty, but it was there and it warmed her somewhat, unlike anything she felt for a long, long time.

"What's happening to me?" she thought as she shook her head, "Father had said to help him."

So, she enlisted help in making sure that Nabiki's spies couldn't interfere with Ranma, she thought, "He needs time to himself without all the craziness."

End of Flashback

Although the hospital was set up to stop intruders and media, such as windows were tinted against telephoto lenses and the walls were insulated against thermal scans. The computer system was routinely being hacked from the inside as well as outside by people. The nurses took it as normal.

But with seeing what Ranma was up against, security was tightened at the hospital as if an anticipating an assault on them. The computer system was changed by their resident hackers and more nurses were on duty than normal as if they were expecting a heavy onslaught of attacks.

Ranma's enemies didn't disappoint them either. Many people tried to get answers from the nurses or other patients about Ranma. Others tried to sneak in or pose as a patient were hussled to the East Wing, away from Ranma. Those who had gotten past the East Wing were booted out.

Their patients wanted their privacy and the Hospital was to give them it. The increase in unwanted visitors made even the most sweet tempered nurse grouchy at the constant intrusion into their public and private lives. Each doctor and nurse were selected to be proof against physical attackers as well as blackmailers or extortionists. When they worked at the hospital, the hospital was their family. It came even to take their names off their family registers. It was to keep their own families and friends safe from being smeared or taken hostage by violent people as leaverage to get to their patients.

They foiled many assassination, stalking and kidnapping attempts. The most routine was the tabloids to get into their computer system.

As this occurred, Dr. Tofu saw Ranma's mounting frustration with catching up on school work. Dr. Tofu consulted with Dr. Mizuko had also seen that problem and they both tried to think of a solution. Suddenly, she had a brilliant idea. Her daughter, Ami, could help him get back on track. Ami was an A+ student, but she was worried that she would be too isolated because she studied so much. Despite being with her friends, she had never been even on a date.

As time moved on, Tofu wasn't surprised when people were trying to dig information out of him. To the Satomes or the Tendos, he would give no information, especially to Ms. Satome even when she threatened him with her sword. She had known the incredible amount of damage that had been done to Ranma with just gossip.

He really had nothing left to lose, he left months ago just after Mrs. Satome come to see Ranma. Her remarks when she failed to change his opinion about Ranma were chilling about taking his side against her. At first it was just fewer patients who came to see him, but gradually no one came. When he went to inquire with a few of his former patients, he found that horrible rumours had been circulated about him and some were blackmailed outright not to come to him. He had suspicions on who did this and it was confirmed when he saw Kasumi and Ms. Satome together.

At first, he could still see the innocence that stole his heart, but after Ms. Satome came he saw that innocence wither and die. He had gradually gotten over his condition when he saw her 'accidently' splash him when Kuno was around or when Ranma least expected it and the other occasions when she let down her guard and he overheard her talk with Ms. Satome. Ms. Satome twisted words and deeds around and Kasumi believed it. After the rumours against Ranma seemed errily familar to the rumours that drove him from Nerima. The final straw was when Ranma confronted Kasumi in the hospital because it confirmed his worst fears and broke his heart. They yelled loud enough for the entire floor to hear. He had always held out that Kasumi would see past Ms. Satome's prejudices and biases, but now sees her as a person he never really knew.

He frowned when he found out that the Ms. Satome with the Tendo's help were trying to get him out of the hospital, but they wouldn't be able to do it because he said no. He was Ranma's doctor and despite being his parents, he gave his opinion that they made it worse, backed up by the fact that she approved of Akane who maimed him and still did if he left the hospital. It actually went to court and despite Ms. Satome and the Tendo sister's act, they were all caught in more than one lie. Even then with the story of his life out, the judge reluctantly agreed that it was in Ranma's best interest to remain in his care. It was found out a very long time later that the Satome lawyer was in fact hired and paid by the Kunos.

A stray thought broke through his depression. A smile graced Tofu's face in what seemed ages when he found out about Kasumi. A chuckle escaped his lips as he shook his head in disbelief when he realized that Ranma, despite everything that had happened to him, had healed and hadn't become bitter with women or life. If his impression of what Ranma thought of Urd was of any indication, the greater maturity was quite a surprise, but not unwelcomed. He had a strong feeling that he would need all of it in the times to come.

A frown suddenly graced his face as he remembered the other problem that he have Ranma.

The problem was with him healing. Of course, he healed quickly, but... it was never complete. Each battle after his mother first visited him became more frequent and he had less time to heal from the breaks and strains plus the fact that he was always on the move gave him too much stress.

He only found out about it from tests that were performed on him. The test found broken bones and tendons that didn't seem to heal completely, his bone composition that was less than it should have been and strains and aches that would drive a normal person insane by their constant.

Only within these weeks had these trends been reversed. He was eating well and healing, his ki was starting to increase again and most of all the stress of his old life that sapped the life out of him was gone. He could see Ranma start ENJOYING his martial arts he could do again and not just doing it because he knew nothing else.

The good doctor was impressed with his new techniques, but was he was completely surprised when he quickly mastered the use of weapons, especially the sword and the glaive. When he asked Ranma how he did it so quickly, even for him, his reply was, "Doc, not using weapons and not knowing how to use them are two different things. I may not like using weapons in real combat, but I would be a fool not to know what is possible with each weapon. Anyway, I memorized the moves to know what attacks are possible and even devised counters for them. I don't relish the idea of losing a hand or foot, that would be a loss."

It did make sense. He knew that the knowledge of how the weapons were going to be wielded was critical to countering one, so for Ranma it took little effort to transfer them to its use. All Ranma really needed was practice and he was an expert when it came to practice.

The biggest problem was school. The pig-tailed martial artist needed to get his grades up. It was at first that he tried to do some work in history, but he was bored and he started to scribble just to try to get his mind more motivated. This scribbling in boredom moved to doodling. It was after a period of time when he found that he recognized some shapes. Slowly, faces came and he found that he could get the likeness of people and things really well. It was then that Cream and Urd came in as they both often did as he was doodling. The people of the hospital enjoyed his portrayal of them. They even hung up his sketches of them in their rooms or took them home. To Ranma, it was something to pass the time.

Urd looked at the doodling and said, "Why Ranma, it looks great!"

Surprised, "You think so?"

"Yes, I do. I think you are very talented. I've seen manga which aren't as good as you do now."

Again surprised, "You read manga?"

Blushing while looking like a child with a hand in the cookie jar, "Well, my younger sister always reads them and I..try to keep up."

Ranma laughed, "Don't worry, We'll keep your secret... You really think it's that good?"

"Yes, I do."

A silence with deep undertones.

More silence.

After yet another comfortable silence, Cream's eyes widened and she put forth her idea, "That's it. Why not try to write one."

"Who? Me?"

"Yes, I think you could do it."

"Hmm...you think I could?"

"Yes, you could send it in and all they can do is say no."

Smiling and thinking it over, he thought, "I have nothing to lose", "Let's go for it."

Two months later...

After his talk with Cream that he finally finished his first manga volume, under a different name. He agonized how he would make it since his life was now used by his foes before he realized when he thought back to his stories and found that it was different than what his life had been.

From their (as in most of all of his close girl "friends") point of view, he was the 'idiotic martial artist' in the manga. They never looked at everything he did as a mockery. Even being truly in love with that...tomboy. All the women in the manga were always better than the men, even thought they did just as many stupid things as the men. The mistakes that they made were simply shrugged off as if they had the right to make them. The worst part was that they showed the men as never truly learning anything from his experiences. The most depressing part was that it sold really well. Everybody he knew read it, laughed at the totally clueless martial artist. He smiled at the laughs, but it broke his heart that they never really made the connection between the manga and his life.

He found that he couldn't draw anything he liked for many weeks. The depressing way the stories twisted the truth into a comedy that took aim almost directly at him. Akane was nicer and everybody else more one dimensional.

The frustration grew until one day he just got fed up and started to just draw anything that came into his mind. The images came in slow, shaky, and extremely painful, but gradually became more refined as he got past the anxiety and pain. The characters and backgrounds took shape as he mixed fantasy with reality. He found that it makes it more believable when they think it is fantasy, such as chi blasts or magic. As time went on and to his surprise, he actually saw the funnier aspects of his life. The irrelevance of many things that people did made him smile, as he looked back on his old life with less pain and more laughter, in the brighter parts of his life before the mess. It also made him look at his early years. As his creativity and motivation with his artwork improved, he used the Katchu Tenshin Amaguriken do work in hours that would normally take an artist a week to do.

From his stories, he had always been portrayed his adventures as in ancient kingdoms and magical creatures in his travels. He didn't know why, but he planned to do another extended series with the first Human Empire with its interaction with gods, technology and magic and then its fall that continued into the Tree People with their goddesses and the Magic Kingdom with their magic. He felt that he was compelled to tell this story in its entirety. He continued to put his own spin on things and maybe, just maybe, he would put his able to put this episode in his life behind him.

Cream wasn't idle either, she made contacts and submitted his manga to many companies and found that they would pay him little. Being insulted like that prompted her to make it on her own. You don't live over a two hundred years in China and one hundred years in Japan without resources. She knew that this would sell. The people in the hospital wanted to buy it right away and wanted to know when Ranma would do more.

Two volumes later and using her connections, she printed off two thousand copies. At first it was like any other manga, but as word of mouth from the hospital circulated outside, it started selling faster and faster. By the end of a few weeks, one million copies had been sold of each volume. The previous companies who turned her down or offer pittance, now wanted a piece of the action. Anime companies wanted to produce television, movies and commercials with his characters. It even an anime convention all for itself. The phenomenon was incredible.

Ranma was stunned. All he wanted to do was draw well and tell his story with the tragic and funny parts into it. It was a dark/comedy/drama, a very hard mix. Obviously a combination of Lone Wolf and cub, Ranma 1/2 and a soap opera that was his life. The manga was only a year and a half of his life. He was starting it at the beginning that was even weirder.

With no middleman, the profits went to Ranma and Cream minus the cost of printing it, advertising and selling it. There was still a very large amount left.

With this going on, Ranma contacted Mr. Kuonji. He sent a letter to Mr. Kuonji and stated in very formal terms that he wanted a written confirmation that all their dealings would be ended when, not if he paid the money.

Mr. Kuonji was a businessman and an arrogant one at that. He felt that this incident was a stain on his honour. He blamed the Satomes for this whole incident and the pain that his daughter went through. He knew from his daughter that Genma was worthless, but that Ranma might prove to be a great find. Now with Ranma paralyzed, he felt that the all the Satomes were worthless and that he wanted the Satomes to suffer.

In his arrogance and supposedly superior financial position, he, himself, drew the contract up and it was put that all debts were paid and it would be as if the engagement never happened, only if the money was delivered. The yatti was worth that much in fair market value and in the terms of honour. He knew that the Satomes were nearly broke and The General Hospital was the best hospital. The financial drain would be a great strain for them. He arrogantly put in one hundred million yen just to make them squirm.

Problems were piling up faster than in even his old life. His troubles with the Kuonji was just the beginning. He found that despite the ease in which some things came back to him, the struggle to regain is real level in martial arts, coupled with the pressures in drawing 'good' manga to his standards and the entrance exams for college getting too stressful in a different way. In short, he was in a crisis, but things were about get worse.

Author's note:

Ranma is having real decisions on his life. In the original, he never really made a decision on his own. He always reacted. Now he has something to look forward to... 


	9. Chapter 6

CHAOS SQUARED - FIRST ARC

Chapter 6

Attack

It was about early in the morning and about ten weeks after the "incident" that changed his life. Ranma was outside alone in his wheelchair. On the roof of the hospital, it was a place where he could usually be alone with his thoughts. They had just seen the sun rise and were just sitting there peacefully.

Ranma had come a long way since he was here weeks ago. He seemed to smile more and even laugh at times. To Cream and the other nurses, he seemed to come alive after what was a horrible life. The children were a boon to him. Their wonder about life that was unencumbered by the problems of the adult world.

In his stories, he took, not only the children but himself also, to the long forgotten places of his childhood. He had seen many things, done many things that was adventurous and magical. To him it was commonplace because he never really thought about it. He just reacted to what was thrown at him.

Suddenly, Ranma had gotten a feeling. It was like something was watching him.

"Mehh."

Startled, he looked around, ready to flee until he saw Ryo. She was just at his feet the first minute. It registered at the back of his mind that it was the first time he didn't freak out. Uneasy, yes, but not hustling for his life kind of fear. He began to realize that the time he spent with Sammi had made him to be accustomed to Ryo. In a way, he was actually more comfortable around Ryo than with a lot of other people. In many ways, he was really surprised how intelligent she was and a lot nicer than a lot of people he knew. She was very easy to please. Just a few carrots and she was happy. He sighed as he thought how uncomplicated her life was (unknown to him how hectic her life really was).

As he thought about it more, he did consider Ryo a kind of friend. One of a very few real ones he had.

After a second more, Ryo changed into a girl and wheeled him out. After that, she simply sat in his lap. It went to become a ritual for them to go in the mornings to relax. There was no need to talk. She seemed to simply want to be with him. This was a big change from people who wanted something from him, to change him, or to destroy him.

He still couldn't help, but smile at the times when he found her sleeping in his bed as much as she slept in Sammi's. He was surprised when she changed into a girl and snuggled. He sweatdropped, but decided to play along. She had to habit of doing that to him when he was sad that even he had to laugh. It surprised her that it didn't faze him in the least.

Hey, he knew she wasn't really a girl and he went through a lot of crazy things. This wasn't close to the craziest.

They were just staring at the sunrise when his danger sense went off and he threw himself to one side as a whistle came slashing down where he had been a second before.

This was when they heard a maniacally voice coming from behind him. It was Kuno.

He turned around and was surprises to see uncharacteristically apprehensive and silent Mousse. This unnerved him because of the silence. There was no death threats or insults, just a haunting look.

"Ho there, my white goddess! That foul Satome has once again enspelled a beautious and innocent with his dark sorcery!" Kuno raved, "No matter, I, Kuno, the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High shall save you and banish the sorceror to the nether realms!"

"This isn't good." Ranma thought, "Kuno has become a lot better, but Mousse seemed to be distracted. What? Sasuke is pointing the sword..." breaking through his thoughts, "wait a minute, my legs..."

From Ranma's lap, Ryo was hissing at this idiot, but before she could do anything, she found herself looking up at a flying bokken aimed at her and Ranma. It was then that she changed back into a cabbit without thinking about it.

No one really blinked at this. Everybody still accepted it that weirdness still was around Ranma.

At this, Kuno yelled, "Foul creature! Begone!"

Signal for thunder and lightning. Also insert, we see Sasuke with a big mushroom sigh and signalling frantically at Ranma at the bokken.

With Ranma distracted, this was when Kuno attacked with a slashing motion. It still surprised Ranma that the idiot would attack with Ryo, the innocent, in front of him.

Ranma snapped back to reality and thought as he saw the bokken coming donw, "Shit!. Everything seemed to go into slow motion, as he fought to save Ryo and himself.

Kuno missed, but in his overextended slash he knocked the chair over and they all fell into a tangle with Ranma.

Ranma fell hard and then tried to roll frantically away. As Kuno came for him, he freed himself from his chair and threw his useless legs out and knocked Kuno down. From there, he struck Kuno upside the head as many times as he could then in his face. Kuno raged at being suddenly blinded. This tactic surprised Mousse and Sasuke. This was really the first time he used that underhanded trick. He may still be crippled, but he was far from being the "helpless" person everybody would pity.

Unknown to everyone else, Mousse had trained hard to overcome his disability with this vision. He used opportunity to train harder in secret with his friend, Al Lo. He wanted to surprise Shampoo, but instead he was the one who was truly surprised.

He may not have been able to see Ranma clearly, but he could hear and feel him. He knew that Ranma couldn't use his legs, but the lack of the catlike landing of old disturbed him deeply.

Mousse then threw his weapons from his sleeves. Clubs and staffs rained on Ranma and Ryo, not knives or chains.

Ranma had grabbed Ryo and rolled away from Kuno's slashing attacks when he realized what Sasuke was trying to tell him, that Kuno had a real sword that was painted to look like a bokken. It was hard for Ranma as he was out of shape and unaccustomed to fighting with only his upper body.

Ryo has started to struggle to try to get out of Ranma's grip and transform into her spaceship mode, but it became apparent that if Ranma didn't protect her she would be sushi.

An opening came when in a high slashing motion from Kuno, Ranma surprised Kuno by stopping the sword with his two hands and then yanking the sword closer and head butting him in the head with Ryouga type force.

After, he tripped Kuno with the violent swing of his free swinging legs, a move that he had adapted for this kind of situation. With Kuno was down for a second, he gathered himself and shot a fast moving raw ki blast at Mousse, his first use of raw ki since the incident. It was a new kind of ki blast, the ones that didn't rely on emotions. He knew that his normal Mouko Takabisha would be too draining for him in battle, so he tried to use raw ki. He hadn't really perfected it until...right now and it took more concentration to use, but found that it didn't drain him in energy or emotions like the Mouko Takabisha.

Early on in his stay, he realized that he needed an edge, but he never practiced the technique before. Now he had to use a technique that he hadn't perfected yet and used only in desperation. He formed it in his hand and let it loose. As it sped towards Mousse, it threatened to break apart, but it held together with the utmost concentration from Ranma. It was his energy and he controlled it. What surprised him was that it was much quicker to gather as well as moving much faster and seemingly twice as powerful than his Mouko Takabisha. In an afterthought, it seemed that the medium was the problem. He had to summon his confidence, shape his attack and the medium drew at least half the energy as the actual attack itself to keep it together.

Ranma was tired, but not as tired as he would have if he used his Mouko Takabisha. It explained why he didn't feel as drained when he did the new raw ki attack. He did remember the warning of many sensis of the weakness of using too much raw ki, especially when using the Hadoken.

Even with the new raw ki attack, it was a much stronger than normal ki attack because he improvised it so that it also takes chi from where it travels over to make it stronger as it goes on. Over the weeks, Ranma's ki had slowly increased, but still way below his previous levels. This was why he was healing so slowly for the first few weeks and why after he was able to move more quickly after he recovered.

For a second, it totally took Mousse by surprise because he never sensed the build up of ki, by its speed and power, but when he could make out the blast it finally dawned on him to move. Unfortunately, it was the sound. Kaboom! The attack embedded Mousse through the wall and taking him out of the fight.

Cologne nearly fell off her staff as she was totally surprised at this. Raw ki attack and perfected so that it stayed together outside the body. She knew that Ranma was good, but to adapt so quickly was amazing. He was the material that legends were made of. Unfortunately, she also saw that he was still paralyzed and that no matter how good he was, the other Council of Elders would never agree to have one who is a 'cripple' into the tribe. She sighed as to their short sightedness.

As she looked over at Mousse, she couldn't help but feel the guilt that she carried for these years. It was for the good of the village that the secret be kept, but she could feel that the time was approaching for Mousse to come into his own without the Amazons. Only then can she unburden herself from the silence she had kept.

In his desperation, Ranma had to gamble on the new ki attack because he couldn't fight both Kuno and Mousse as they both had tremendously improved. He knew he couldn't fight them until he was healed. He had to take themout quickly before he tired or made a mistake. Unfortunately, he was feeling low because he wasn't used to using his attack in a very long time and it drained him tremendously. His reserves were greatly depleted and he still had to take on Kuno with that sword. So, he used his other technique of drawing ki from the environment at a faster rate.

At the same time with Kuno down, Ryo slipped from his grip and started to change to her spaceship mode, but she underestimated how fast Kuno could recover. So crazed with delusions and adrenaline, all he wanted was to destroy the sorcerous Ranma and didn't care that Ryo was in the way. In that instant, she became an obstacle to be taken care of.

This was the first time someone attacked her in this form and it was understandable that as Kuno came at her so fast that she froze for a fatal instant.

When Ranma saw Kuno had actually kept on coming despite Ryo being in the way, with Kuno's sword held high for the killing blow as, time had started to slow...

Kuno's attack had started his final attack like his attack on the first day, but faster.

In Ranma's subconscious mind, he started to analyze the situation and he reviewed his options. He realized that he was tired and needed more energy to get him moving to save Ryo.

As the attack continued to slow, the sword started to descend and headed straight at Ryo. He racked his brain for SOMETHING and he needed it NOW.

As he tried to draw ki from around him, it was too little. He had already drawn tremendous amounts of ki from the surrounding area for the attack. He would have had to draw it from a larger area that would take more time than he could afford and thus would be too late. This was his worst nightmare, a real friend was about to die and he was helpless. In desperation, a memory of power flashed in his mind. He searched within himself for that power and found... The Nekokken.

For the first time, ever, he consciously summoned the Nekkoken. In the past when the Nekkoken happened, his mind would have backed away so fast he would hardly remember it, but today was different. Because of Ryo, because her impact on his life and especially now because she was in peril, he faced it for the first time in nearly twelve years. Needing its energy and fighting strength to save her. He needed the Nekkoken's power, but also needed to use his own ki and be fully conscious to execute the save.

As time resumed

As the sword descended, Ranma was surprised that he wasn't tired anymore. Strange. It seemed like Kuno was going in very slow motion as Ranma shifted just a bit to grab Ryo and dodge Kuno's strikes.

Cologne nearly fell over again when she saw the speed of Ranma's hand. She didn't sense any build up of ki. It was almost like his natural speed. Unfortunately, she would never know that she was witnessing the rebirth of the REAL Nekkoken. A technique that came from the gods, but were corrupted by the demons when practiced all those eons ago. Ranma had become the first mortal practitioner since the beginning of the world to have truly mastered it. He wouldn't know that it was the first true step to godhood. The conquering of FEAR.

He felt really tired of Kuno and his idiotic attacks as his eyes narrowed and his hands started to glow as claws were about to be unsheathed.

This wasn't the nice kitty claws that the he and the other practitioners had used when in the Nekkoken.

No.

These were claws of a very big and angry full grown feline.

As time slowed again almost to a stop, he realized that he may have to unleash them despite what he knew about Kuno...then...SMACK!

That stopped everything. A hand print on Kuno's face. Urd still shaking her hand.

As Kuno, you know the flower routine, was about to begin, a sudden glare from her was enough for even him to give pause.

Disgusted, she raged, "How dare you do that!"

"I see the foul sor-" was as far as Kuno got before another smack struck him again.

"Don't you even think that! You are by far not worthy of even mentioning his name! How dare you attack an unarmed and injured man." interrupted Urd.

Ranma was almost started to say that he could take care of himself when he paused as she continued, "As I have heard, the Kuno honour is no more."

As Kuno was about to deny that, she shouted, "Shut up! I have heard you rant and rave about how honour and the bushido. How it must be sorcery when a girl doesn't like you...well, tough. If you can't face the fact that they don't like you. I can see why they don't. The great Kuno attacking an unarmed and injured man. There is no honour. None whatsoever.

She turned and said, "This day is a blight on the Kuno name."

Kuno froze. He didn't know what to do as his mind started to actually think of what she said.

Suddenly, a sad laugh filled the air, "Hohohohoho!"

It was Kodatchi. Everyone tensed up with the leotarded martial artist. She looked proud and noble then shook her head.

She said, "Alas, I see now that my Ranma-sama is no more. He is but half man now. I, a noble Kuno, couldn't marry such that is beneath me." With that, her eyes sharpened into daggers as she continued, "He doesn't deserve to live. He stained the Kuno name! Take came of him for Tendo Akane and your pig tailed goddess as well as the nurses he enslaved." with that she leaped over the wall and was away and made good her escape.

Everyone in the garden was downfounded and then the present situation came in.

A roar of vengence came bursting forth from Kuno as he burst forward in his final attack, "Vile Sorceror! I will smite thee and free the beauties!"

Kuno leaping around Urd, he headed for Satome with his sword held high. As Urd saw this, she saw red and did what she instinctively does all the time.

"Urd Lightning Bolt!"

Flashing bolt of electricity blew from her fingertips to the back of Kuno. His sword became an excellent conductor.

Unfortunately, two things happened. The first was that Kuno was hit by lightning many times when he was practicing with the Kuno Secret Opening Speeches Technique and thus was partially immuned to the effects. The second and more unfortunate thing was that it pushed him closer to Ranma.

Kuno kept on coming at Ranma until he stopped and falling face forward unconscious into the ground about with his sword tip about a finger width from Ryo and Ranma.

A huge lump forming on Kuno's head courtesy of a bamboo umbrella. Ryouga was here and proceeded to just leave Mousse and Kuno where they lay.

As Ranma recovered from the shock of both the lightning and Ryouga's rescue of him, what surprised him even more was when Ryouga just picked him up and put him back into his wheelchair.

He started to whispered something to Ryouga as Cologne came back to collect Mousse, but stopped when he recognized her deneamor to him. It had clearly changed to showed that he was no longer worthy of her tribe, but she gave him a warrior's salute and then splashed Mousse and left with him.

Sasuke was about to drag his master back home when Ranma had signalled him to.

Suddenly as Sasuke neared Ranma while dragging Kuno when Kuno revived and everyone tensed, but what came to a shock to everyone.

Instead of attacking, Kuno sobbed, "I'm sorry." It wasn't what he said that shook him, but how he said it. It was as if a deep down in an unspeakable torment. It was so bad that even Ryo started to feel bad.

Not knowing why, Ranma gestured that it was all right. As Kuno passed out, it was Sasuke that tensed when Ranma made the gesture. Sasuke kept on staring at him until he just nodded.

Still puzzled, Ranma turned to the matter at hand as he thought, "This was the easy part, now came the hard part."

Author's note:

Surprising, is it not? Things are starting to come around as the events start to turn back to the beginning.

I really appreciate the trouble battle scenes make now. 


	10. Chapter 6b

CHAOS SQUARED

Side Story of Chapter 6

Mu Tu's Story

When Mu Tse left the village, he realized that his life as an Amazon was over, but found that had the village never really been his home. He was always the butt of someone else's joke...

"But not without good reason." he thought.

He reddened as he thought of the really idiotic things he had done. As his thoughts returned to HOME, he realized that the only place that had accepted him as who he was, but then he had always known and started walking in the direction of Japan.

All through his travels, Mu Tse was thinking about what happened.

Flashback

Around four months ago

After Ranma's injury, he was ready to finish the job, but was dragged back to the village by Elder Khun Lo. It was there that it dawned on him that his hated rival, Ranma Satome, was gone. The Council would never let him marry Xian Pu now that he was crippled.

As time went by, he felt less hatred towards his former because he had no claim on her yet. If he did recover then he would finish the job. If not then his chief rival was gone.

In odd way, he felt saddened. Ranma was by far the best of his generation. He did respect Ranma and grudgingly admitted it to himself. It also dawned on him that he was far better now than when he left the village. Fighting Ranma improved his speed and strength. Also, the beatings by Shampoo had improved his stamina, like the Bakusai Tensetsu training.

Even though he was better now, he still had to improve himself and finally prove his worth to Xian Pu. He hated his glasses and bad eyesight, which made him the laughing stock of the village. Amazons thought of anyone with a disability as beneath them, despite some who had overcome it to become great warriors.

He had to improve, but how? He thought and came up with the answer. Al Lo. She was the premiere night hunter and raider of the tribe and perhaps the only warrior who showed him higher contempt than his love, Xian Pu. He had to learn how to use his other senses to fight. He had seen Ranma do it when he and others had blinded him on many occasions. He did know the concepts, it was more with getting your senses to be more attuned to your surroundings.

The next day, he went over to Al Lo and asked her to train him in secret. She had her usual contempt, but Mu Tse swallowed his pride and kept on asking. She knew that he would do this until he got what he wanted and didn't want to go what Xian Pu did. She acceded, but asked why he wanted to improve. He said he wanted to improve to prove himself to Xian Pu, but didn't want everyone to know. After a lot of arguments, she conceded that Mu Tse needed to improve, although she still thought him an idiot. The exchange would be for fighting techniques, Night Fighting for Hidden Weapons. A fair exchange. This was to improve himself so that he can finally beat her and win her hand. With this, he dedicated himself to training to beat her.

She had tried to master the Hidden Weapons techniques, but found later that she and the Hidden Weapon's mistress, the Elder Tal Cum, Mousse's mother, didn't like each other for some reason. Tal Cum made it very difficult for her. She did get the technique to hold weapons, but wasn't correctly taught the technique of getting the weight down. She would have use the technique, primarily, to store things to make hunting easier.

About a month later

Both were progressing. Al Lo was starting to finally grasps the last principles of the Hidden Weapons and Mu Tse could had found he had the basics already, in sensing auras and sharpening his other senses, but now finally knew that he could rely on his other senses to move around and even to fight. The problem was that he just ignored the auras and his other senses before and concentrated on his sight, now he did the opposite. It real hard part was distinguishing what was coming to him and interpreting it. All he really needed was practice which he did instead of chasing Xian Pu.

He had seen Xian Pu only occasionally in six weeks. On those occasions, he still showed that he needed to improve when he was plummeted by everyone in his obsessive mode. Now that he could control it, barely, he would show her that he is strong enough for her.

Another month later

Without Mu Tse's constant interference, Xian Pu went with her new companion who courted her. It came as a total shock to him because it was his older brother, Rei Xor. They had never found out how he knew about them. They were very discreet, but his foster mother knew and even encouraged it. It started by Rei Xor had sparred with Xian Pu on many occasions and everyone was impressed at his skill and his looks. From there it progressed into a full grown infatuation.

Mu Tse knew. His new senses told him where everyone was and he could sense the paths of both Rei Xor and Xian Pu. They sparred, but even he could feel their growing affections for each other. He was still obsessed with Xian Pu, but over the weeks it dulled a little. Also it was his older brother who he idolized. He was torn and just didn't know what to do.

There was no confrontion. It was from his actions that Mu Tse served notice that he knew. They still laughed at his pathetic attempts to get Shampoo and didn't really notice the intense looks of thought after they turned away.

Another month later

Mu Tse was very happy. He found he could fight even when his glasses were knocked off. He could now feel where other people were, but his other senses were much more acute. He even developed a way to distinguish people by their auras. He couldn't see them, but he could feel them. Each person had a unique signature.

He had refined it enough for them to make a human like arms and legs. He can distinguish if they had a weapon because it resonated differently when ki went through it. It was extremely useful because he could use it in the dark as well as in the light. It was only rough and he found that when it was at a high enough level, he could use it almost to "see" things.

Unknown to him, he started sensing the ki around him unconsciously. He didn't know that it was a milestone for him, but he knew that people would ask too many questions if he started showing that he had overcome his handicap. With time, he found he could sense the flow of natural ki and that even inanimate objects were affected by ki. By the way it affected things, he could actually distinguish a shapes and even textures, but not colour.

Al Lo on the other hand had grasped the principles and was now in full command of the Hidden Weapons Style. She still sparred with him even though she mastered the technique long ago. They chose secret places to spar because she didn't want the others to know she was actually taking the village idiot seriously. Riducule was the one thing she couldn't tolerate.

Mu Tse also agreed for different reasons. He had improved so much that he had changed mentally as well as physically. He saw things like the contempt and the ways his fellow amazons treated him. He felt that this wasn't home. Nerima was his home.

He kept on surprising her. Each time he sparred with her, he beat her. It surprised her that he could do that even when he was in his cursed form. At first, She thought it would be easy win until he did some aerial attack moves, but when he had started to do some new special attacks in his cursed form like in his normal form, she knew she was in trouble.

He seem to do the moves at random intervals in a haphazard way like using a sword one minute to bare handed the next to a totally weird technique then another totally different move. She thought he was getting crazier because some of his moves were so strange that she thought it was flukes when he actually hit her at seemingly random times. In fact, it was a way for him to test his moves out without her really knowing what he was doing. He had even adapted some of the techniques when he was in duck form. He reasoned that he might get splashed and have to defend himself.

She was actually getting better as she won most of their matches.

So was he, as after the second month that he let her win. He fully tested his techniques and found the good and ready.

It occurred later to him that without Ranma being his rival for Xian Pu, he could "see" more clearly now. What Ranma actually shown him was that he was a good martial artist, but he relied on his Hidden Weapons too much. He was weak in so many areas that it really surprised him.

Had Al Lo just taken a step back, she would have seen him producing a whole new style. Had she been with him in Nerima, she would have recognized a lot of the moves or variations of them. Ki blasts, aerial and unarmed combat, different weapon techniques and such were used by him and Akane's Hammerspace. Had she stepped back, she would have seen herself falling for Mu Tse, the village idiot.

She had sparred so long with him that she didn't see the gradual reduction in his use of the Hidden Weapons Style in both his natural and cursed forms. His style with and without weapons were starting to meld. He could switch from using a weapon to bare handed in a blink. What really surprised her was that he could use his special techniques with weapons too and that he automatically changed tactics when he was splashed. That and coupled with his increasing proficiency with his weapons. He may never be master swordman, but he was a darn good one and hat goes with his other weapons as well.

A three weeks later

Mu Tse was starting to puzzle her. She had seen the confrontation between him, herself and Rei Xor over a week ago and thought he would have backed down from his brother, but didn't. He still did his normal "My darling Shampoo" thing and got pounded. What no one saw except her was that he wasn't really hurt or that he smiled.

Over time, Mu Tse was beginning to find that Xian Pu, despite being the best warrior of her generation, may not be the best person to be a wife. He was slowly seeing that the only true friend he actually had in the village was Al Lo of all people. If this was happening to Mu Tse, the opposite was happening to Xian Pu. Mu Tse, somehow, seemed to look better than before. There were clues that should have let her know that he was changing, but her contempt of him by her and the rest of the village still lingered and interfered in her and them grasping the changes in him.

Little did she know that those changes would turn the village upside down and for good or ill challenge the very foundations of their way of life. What happened next determined the fate of the Amazon Nation.

Mu Tse week later, he left the village with Elder Khun Lo to see if Ranma was going to recover. Xian Pu protested and didn't have to go. Elder Khun Lo raised an eyebrow and did something extraordinary. She let her stay. She knew that Shampoo was seeing Rei Xor.

Later after the battle at a hotel

Carrying back the duck, Khun Lo was pensive. Son-in...Ranma was still paralyzed. She saw it when he was knocked out of the wheelchair by that idiot Kuno.

She was still mightily impressed. Even with the relative inactivity for almost three months, he still amazed her. He actually did a 'raw'chi attack, but it drained him too much. His speed at catching the weird animal was puzzling, but it was lucky for him that the Lost Boy helped him before the idiot Kuno cleaved him in half. She was surprised when he didn't attack Ranma, but wheeled him in.

She would have to report back to the Council. She hadn't felt this depressed and frustrated in years, not since Ka Heem and her family were exiled for a petty squabble. This was the sort of thing that tore apart the Amazon Queendom all those thousands of years ago and preventing them from creating another one since then.

She knew the decision that the Council would make. Xian Pu's Kiss of Marriage would be officially annulled. The prejudice against any physical disability was strong. She saw first hand that he would still be a great martial artist, not the best, but still better than most men of the village. She had the feeling that something GREAT has just slipped though her fingers.

She felt a swirling of something happen when they went in. Something was coming and it seemed that it would be a big one that will affect the village with Mu Tse at the center of it. He attacked Ranma with clubs and staffs with no knives or chains. He remained strangely quiet. No love declaration to Xian Pu or insults to her.

When she and Mu Tse returned to the village, the sensation of chaos had gotten stronger. What happened later had made her rethink many things.

As expected the Council annulled the Kiss of Marriage. After the announcement, a deep calm had descended in the village, it was weird to everyone in the village because there was no declaration of love by Mu Tse and no pathetic attempts to get Xian Pu to notice him. It should have been great for Xian Pu, but as she looked a Mu Tse, she actually feel the changes in him. It made her uneasy and fascinated at the same time.

As things changed with Xian Pu, so it did with Rei Xor. For a long time, he was unofficially acknowledged as the best male of his generation, but now it made him uneasy that Xian Pu was now the one sneaking looks at Mu Tse without her habitual contempt sometimes. The bad part was that Mu Tse wasn't returning those looks anymore. The changes didn't stop there. Others female warriors were starting to have a second look at the village idiot with tensions from the male warriors. It had taken some time, but it just occurred to them that he wasn't mistaking everything else for Xian Pu. At first, everybody rejoiced, but now it felt absolutely eerie because no one except Al Lo knew why. They felt his unconscious confidence, and most of all his good looks; but years of contempt weren't washed away in a few weeks.

Tensions built up mainly on Rei Xor's side when Mu Tse didn't back down from him. This occurred when he threatened Mu Tse to not be anywhere near his 'beloved' Xian Pu. It was he who backed down from the determination and strength in Mu Tse's eyes. When Rei Xor's temper exploded one day, everything changed and nothing would be the same again.

Everyone thought Mu Tse was pathetic and were totally surprised when Rei Xor challenged Mu Tse for an imaginary insults to Xian Pu. Mu Tse's foster mother coddled Rei Xor and turned him away in contempt, seconded the challenge. Rei Xor was full of confidence because he had battled Xian Pu to a standstill while Mu Tse couldn't last more than a few seconds. It came to a shock to Mu Tse when he actually saw the shifting of their auras that the contempt that they both had for him was real. He couldn't see any of the tolerance from his mother or the acceptance from his brother anymore.

This was a male Amazon battle, so they didn't use the real Challenge Log, but the male Challenge Log. Out of all of the village, only five people showed up with the challengers, Xian Pu, Rei Xor's friend Tu Be and surprisingly Khun Lo and Al Lo.

Xian Pu was just supporting Rei Xor, but the real surprise was that Khun Lo and not Tal Cum came as a Elder must be here to witness and settle disputes of the match. Khun Lo seemed to have taken an interest in Mu Tse. Tal Cum didn't attend because of her confidence that Rei Xor can beat Mu Tse easily and again showing her contempt for Mu Tse. Al Lo also did attend as she thought that how much Mu Tse had improved.

Of course when Rei Xor came, he was cocky. Mu Tse, on the other hand, was calm. So calm that it was that eerie and it was like he was foreboding of a massive storm. Everyone there felt it but shook it off. After all, Rei Xor was so much better than pathetic Mu Tse. They should have known better.

The battle started and progressed like always as Rei Xor avoided and countered Mu Tse's Hidden Weapons with his own. Rei Xor was toying with Mu Tse and after a while got tired and predictably Mu Tse's glasses were knocked off.

What happened next was astounded everyone.

Precisely after Rei Xor slashed with his Great Sword at Mu Tse with both hands in a major, but not lethal blow. He was shocked when Mu Tse shifted with the smallest of margins to spare to avoid the cut. Mu Tse then unleashed moves that flowed into an intricate and lethal dance wove all around Rei Xor he forced him to back up. Even as Rei Xor unleashed his few desperate attacks, Mu Tse flowed around like air and stuck with the speed and power of a rushing river. At the end of the log, Rei Xor was sweating after blocking only some of the cuts and thrusts form Mu Tse. He was getting tired and had to use the Katchu Tenshin Amaguriken on many occasions just to keep from being skewed, but Mu Tse on the other hand was barely breathing hard. Normally Rei Xor would have shrugged it off because of his Backusai Tensetsai training, but Mu Tse was far stronger and faster due to his battles in Nerima, smacks by Xian Pu, the adventures and his additional training.

As Rei Xor lunged in desperation, Mu Tse could have slipped through his defence like a ghost and finished him, but merely jumped back.

Now coupled with the resulting revision of his new chi moves, Rei Xor didn't have a chance. Mu Tse called out the attack, Fist of the White Swan Revised, Fist of the White Eagle. The Fist of the White Eagle would have normally bee like a Mouko Takabisha or a Shi Shi Hadoken, but with this battle, it was much different and he knew it. He drew upon what he felt from Ranma in the battle when he got hit with that massive attack and focused 'raw' ki into it, which came out as big as a full Perfect Shi Shi Hadoken blast and surprising even Mu Tse that it became shaped into a swooping eagle.

Rei Xor was totally unprepared for ki attack, never mind the power behind it. He never knew that his brother, Mu Tse, was up to the level of throwing a ki blast. It wouldn't have mattered anyway as there was no where to go and Rei Xor couldn't do a ki blast. The blast knocked him out as it blew him from the male Area over fifty feet away and utterly wiped out the Challenge Log.

The four people were astounded for different reasons. Khun Lo had finally recognized Mu Tse's potential, Xian Pu was astounded by Mu Tse's level as he never used that against her, Al Lo was thoroughly impressed as she recognized some moves from their sparring. Only Tu Be thought it was a trick. Sorcery. Cheating. How could Mu Tse beat Rei Xor?.

Everyone was in shock, even Khun Lo fell from her staff in shock. Mu Tse calmly, walked away from the male Area, took out another pair of glasses and put them on then he smiled. He knew that only the people here would believe that he defeated Rei Xor. To him, it was a settling of accounts. The Village Idiot beat the best of the Male Amazons of their generation.

He was walking away when Tu Be challenged him. He called him a cheater and attacked. Anticipating such a thing, one seconds later, a GIGANTIC HAMMER which he promptly applied to Tu Be. The use of the 100 ton hammer was more than enough to impress anyone. How Mu Tse actually pulled it out without using the Hidden Weapons and wield it was a true mystery to the Amazons, except Khun Lo and Xian Pu as they saw Akane do it all the time to hit Ranma.

Xian Pu was shocked and was angry that Mu Tse beaten Rei Xor so easily, but in the back of her mind, she wondered when had he gotten so strong and not used the Hidden Weapons Style. The telltale feeling of ki wasn't used in the same way when the Hidden Weapons Style was used.

Khun Lo looked thoughtful at Mu Tse. He had overcame the problem with his sight and his obsession with Xian Pu, mostly. She had a thoughtful look when she saw him take several solid hits by Rei Xor and not flinch. The heavy dents in Rei Xor's Great Sword attested to the strength and speed of Mu Tse. She was surprised that she even recognized an even bigger verison of Akane's Hammer from Hammerspace when he hit Tu Be. As she looked back to the battle, she saw that his coordination improved and that he used an unknown flowing style that had mainly the techniques that were used when they were in Nerima. Something like the Anything Goes...

She smiled and shook her head, so this is Ranma's gift to Mu Tse. Ranma never really considered Mu Tse his enemy and now looking back, saw him teaching Mu Tse to use his brain and speed instead of relying solely on his weapons. She even remembered in some fights that Mu Tse fought far longer than his skill level at that time. Ranma thumped his head and body and Mu Tse had to adapt to close his holes in his defence.

As she thought it over, it occurred to her that she shouldn't have been surprised that he beat Rei Xor. He had changed from his trip to Nerima. His fights with Ranma had to have improved him. He was hardened by hundreds of battles with Ranma and other powerful opponents while Rei Xor only trained with the occasional battle with the Musk or the People of Mount Pheonix. Mu Tse should be consider as one of the best if not the best of his generation in the village now and that doesn't include the enormous strength in overcoming his vision and obsession problems.

The other Elders and the rest of the village were coming now as they sensed and heard the last attack, but would they ever believe that MU TSE would be that good. Probably not. They would probably think that Rei Xor did the technique or that Mu Tse cheated...somehow. Her word wouldn't be taken because of her enemies would want to ridicule her that Mu Tse would actually be a good warrior.

As she looked at Mu Tse, she felt a melancholy in him that the village wasn't his home anymore and that he would shortly leave. Despite her still low opinion of him, she felt he had grown up a bit that he was right in that his place wasn't in the village anymore.

In a grove, he wrote a very long letter later that night. It took him until dawn to finish it and then he gave it to the postmistress. Her eyebrows were raised when she saw it posted for Nerima, Japan.

After sending the letter, Mousse went to see Khun Lo to talk with her. She was impressed with the way he handled things and also impressed that he could walk to her without mistaking anyone else for her. He had indeed overcome his problems. When he gave up on Xian Pu, the long thorn in her side was gone and she looked at him with new eyes. He could have been a great asset to the village, but it seemed his destiny lay elsewhere. It was then she decided that it was time to tell Mu Tse of his heritage and for him to decide what he was to do about it. It took her the rest of the night to do just that.

The next day, a petition that was drawn in front of the Council for Mu Tse to be exiled for cheating in the challenge. The Council like Tal Cum still thought what Mu Tse did was a fluke or that he cheated as Tu Be thought and was glad to get rid of someone who was unfit to be an Amazon. The other Elders still couldn't believe that Mu Tse beat Rei Xor. They considered Rei Xor the best of his generation and always thought Mu Tse was weak as Tal Cum had always thought that.

Later, in front of the village and through the Ritual of Banishment, Mu Tse was stripped of everything Amazon, even his clothes. Neither he or any of his children will be admitted to the Amazon Tribe again, ever. Khun Lo, herself, had given Mu Tse the Xi Fang Ga to take away his Hidden Weapons Style in front of the village, but not what he learned from his encounters from Ranma or his own style that he perfected. Since he never shared it with the Amazons and the Council never knew about it then it was his by right. That was her last gift to him. The gratitude in his eyes made her eyes misty. Here was a fine warrior about to be banished for something that wasn't even his fault.

After the Ritual of Banishment, Mu Tse left the village and never returned.

Of course, Khun Lo had the last laugh at her rival Tal Cam. She said that as Mu Tse was the sole originator of the Hidden Weapons Technique then he gets to keep it.

Tal Cum was speechless, but seething as she couldn't do anything about it. None could dispute that Mu Tse did originate it despite Tal Cum campaign that said that she was his inspiration. Everybody knew that was crap.

Also, it was another victory for Khun Lo because she knew that Tal Cum encouraged Mu Tse behaviour to her Xian Pu. The move was to precisely to keep people from her and to get her with Rei Xor, who would keep the pest, Mu Tse, off her because he was stronger than him. It partially worked in that Rei Xor had gotten Xian Pu, but that he wasn't stronger than Mu Tse. She had to smile to see how the tables had been turned.

Rei Xor was in seclusion as he remembered the final look on Mu Tse's face before Mu Tse's final attack. The breaking of the family bond that had bound them both together and the sadness of what will never be again. His mother casually dismissed it as being a fluke and it was then when he realized his mistake and the mistake of the village. He had subconsciously, like the others, ignored the signs of the emerging warrior in his former brother because of what he knew of him. The habitual contempt of Mu Tse had blinded him as to what he had become.

The worst part as he hung his head down that he had loved him as a brother and at the same time failed in being a brother. As he remembered the good times before his obsession with being a warrior and Mu Tse's with Xian Pu when they talked and confided in one another, he felt again that the village had just made a mistake that will never be rectified.

Al Lo was different. She realized the moves he used because he used the same ones against her, except the ki blast. When she saw how his style came together, she was more than impressed. She was in awe. It was a powerful style that fitted him. It was graceful and strong, but also fast and deadly. She then noticed that his ki had increased when he was unloading his weapons. She wondered how much more powerful he was if he carried only a minimal of it.

It also occurred to her that she wouldn't have a sparring partner anymore. With Mu Tse gone, she found that all of the males warriors and even most of the females ones weren't even at her level, except the Elders. She was nearly the best of the village. Before her training with Mu Tse, she would have been ecstatic. It was what she always wanted. Now, it was hollow as she realized that if she chose to win any challenges that she would become a prize like Xian Pu. Not to mention that the only male to convincingly beat her was now gone. She wondered if her chances in finding a strong husband had just went with him. She had a great deal to think about.

It would take the Council many months before they would really 'listen' to the full story, but it would take even longer for them to admit their mistake. Of course by then it would be far too late for the Amazons to do anything about it.

Khun Lo shook herself out of the feeling of losing something else of great value and that they would never see again. She looked around the village. Even to her aged eyes, she knew they were dying. Stubborn and unwilling to change are now costing them people. Males escape and even now, husband hunting parties were coming home with less and less mates. Fewer children were born since she was a child. Will the Amazons survive? Do they deserve to survive?

At the same moment, as a certain blind boy stepped off the ship in Tokyo harbour. Mu Tse finally found what he was looking for when he returned to Nerima when he ended up on the steps of the Hospital.

Author's note:

I felt that the treatment of Mousse was unfair. Both Shampoo and Cologne treated him badly, but I felt that Cologne would have warmed up to Mousse once he stopped pursuing her granddaughter.

Mousse was not the best of his generation in this alternate, but he did become it. He had grown beyond the scope of the village. If he had stayed, the 'baggage' that he had would never go away.

I don't know, maybe Al Lo will be there for him. 


	11. Chapter 7

CHAOS SQUARED

Chapter 7

- Chinese

The Closings

It had been a hectic few months for him. The experience had changed him. He was still dedicated to martial arts and improved until even he could fight with or without it, but he started to have outside interests also. The first thing was that he wanted to know what happened to him. As he went step by step of what happened during the time with the Neko Ken, he realized that Cologne was right, the Neko Ken was him. The child part of him who became the cat persona. It made perfect sense to him. The playfulness, the curiosity, the interest in other things were those attributes of a child or a cat.

Cologne was also right when he realized why he felt better. That cat part of him merged with him, completing what had started with him all those years ago and bringing him the knowledge and the memories of the Neko Ken when he was under. He now could remember the old woman who helped him before he woke up and hundreds of other bits. In returning to him, he gained the lost part of himself. His physical abilities increased as well as his ki and he used a modified technique that was now use a bigger nastier version of the Neko Ken's chi claws. The best part was he was no longer afraid of cats, in fact, he rather liked them as they sought him out.

True to his word, he still sought to improve himself. Fortunately, the hospital had an excellent library. He began to read all over again, especially about the human body. There were techniques here that he never knew even existed.

Ami Mizuno, Mrs. Mizuno's daugher was a great help study partner to him. He was grateful to Dr. Tofu for helping him out.

He was kind of surprised that the attack didn't phase her at all. To him it was like being in the never ending cycle of fights that made up his life until the incident.

Ami was about eighteen years old intern with short blue/black hair. She vaguely looked liked Akane, but when she opened her mouth the likeness ended. She was well spoken and didn't jump to conclusions. She was lithe like she swan, but he appreciated the fact that she was just as intelligent as Nabiki and NOT after his money.

For some odd reason, even thought he never met her before, he felt queasy towards her. He did liked her a lot. She reminded him of someone he liked very much, like what he had with Ukyou but not like her. Something deeper. Best of all, she seemed to take his curse in stride. But at other times, he felt wary of her at times, which, for the first time in his life, made him want to be close to her and keep a quiet distance from her at the same time.

The feeling was similar to the ones he had on a classmate years ago he was in school. She rejected him because she was from an upperclass family and because she though he was just a dirty little boy. It seemed silly now, but it hurt all the same then. It became funny to the both when he was suddenly splashed more times in that one week studying with her than in all the time he spent in the hospital with the others.

Slowly over the month, he started trying to socialize with her since he was new at it. He sensed more than saw that she seemed extremely introspective for some reason. So he started to tease her and make obvious and deliberate mistakes to just get her to really smile and... it worked, despite herself. That in itself taught him some very fine nuances about what to say and not to say.

By the end of the month, he tasted less of his foot and seen more of her smile. He really started to like her when she would actually give her opinions out loud instead of mumbling it. Debating and redefining their positions in school matters and of life in general.

He surprised her when she found he spoke fluently in more languages than she did even. Although he didn't write them very well, he was improving at an astonishing rate. Even more surprising to her was his knowledge and dedication about martial arts and medicine. Sure the hospital library was extensive, but she thought it would be better if he could use the Internet. She was surprised that he used the Internet so effectively when she introduced it to him. For him, it was another challenge to be the best. He took to computers like a fish to water. He changed from being just a user to a mover in computers as he restarted the Anything Goes Style with the first Anything Goes Programming, the Anything Goes Computer Hacking and so on. For someone so young, he was extremely focused for someone of his age.

More to the point, she liked him. In the beginning, she felt that he was a jerk, but as the month wore on, he seemed to mature each day. It wasn't until she realized that as he was gaining maturity in dealing with life so was she and that maturity gave way to great interest in him.

Flashback

Some time ago, Ami was sitting at her desk at home with a page she looked for at least 30 minutes without actually studying. Her thoughts swirling around a certain pig tailed martial artist.

"Why is he so familiar? Why is he affecting me this way? I had just known him for a couple of months." Ami thought.

Now, it all seemed clear as she remembered him from her previous life in the Moon Kingdom. He was the laughingstock of the Court of the Moon Kingdom as her fianc e was not just called a dandy, but The Fop of the Court, the butt of the jokes and a plain embarrassment to anyone who knew him. At that point she would have done anything to put him out of her misery. She had so much wanted to be with his older brother, Taro, as dashing as he was.

Taro was the figure that she wanted above all else.

That was before he changed... as magic was in his blood.

She shook her head in exasperation.

Unfortunately, she was a Sailor Senshi and with that she knew the dangers of having someone she liked a lot being used against her.

Besides, Sailor Pluto told them that there was a huge disturbance in the Time Stream and couldn't pin point its location, but that was years ago.

After the disappearance of Setsuna, she and Gary got together after they won against the Dark Kingdom, but had to break apart soon afterwards. He kept on having precognition of the end of the world as in the Great Freeze that Setsuna wanted. He couldn't handle that most of humanity had to die for Crystal Tokyo.

She had thought that such a sacrifice was necessary.

End of Flashback

Now she was not the idealistic 14 year old, but now had a more holistic view of the world. She did not like the fact that almost everyone had to die to save humanity.

As time went on, the final tests on Ranma's condition were being conducted. Even Dr. Tofu was amazed how his body healed.

Slowly, but surely, Ranma regained his strength and tentatively walked his first step. There were cheers from the staff as well as from Sammi and Ami.

Ryo was so happy that she jumped onto him, knocking him down.

There was silence until Ranma started laughing and tentatively started standing up again.

It was at the end of the month when Ranma was in the library late into the night that he heard a strange sound. It seemed like it was coming from the back of the library.

As he neared the sound, he realized that no one else was here except him and it make him weary. What came next surprised even him despite the experiences he had in his life.

What he found was that Cream was crying. She was sobbing hard as it looked like she fell asleep near her desk. He went over and gently picked her up and placed her in a more comfortable chair. He sat there thinking about the pillar of the nurses who was crying like a baby. A very old baby.

He stayed with her until he couldn't hold his eyes open. When he next opened them, he saw her looking at him from her chair.

Well, Ranma, it seems from the look on your face that you would like to know what happened yesterday night.

He shrugged, he was learning tact, If you don't want to talk about it, I can understand that...

No, no, I have kept this grief within me for too long, but not now. Later tonight here, where we can talk in private.

Ranma was surprised.

Noting his surprise, she said in a harsh voice, You know of the Chinese Amazaon and their inflexible laws.

A wiry smile came to his face, Yes I do, very well.

Only you, who know them, could fully appreciate what I will tell you. Be her at the same time in tomorrow. and she hopped out of the library on her stick.

Yawning, it was going to be a tiring day as he went to work.

Later, during the day, in the library.

He found that need to sort out his thoughts because of a big surprise came when he went upon his rounds. He received a letter. He smiled. His chinese was getting better and he could read well. It was sent to Satome Ranma from Mu Tse. Ever since the attack, he ran it over in his mind. Kuno did have a sword, but Mu Tse attacked with only blunt objects. Mu Tse had definitely not wanted to kill him.

He then opened the letter. It was on rice paper with clear concise characters. Surprisingly good caligraphy from a near blind person.

Dear Ranma Satome:

It has been a long time since the attack. I am truly sorry for the attack.

That remark raised Ranma's eyebrows.

Khun Lo order me to do it with Kuno. He was still delusional during the attack, but I couldn't see you as an enemy anymore. Too much has happpened.

"What happened?" Ranma thought.

The first is that the Kiss of Marriage that Xian Pu gave is now officially annulled. It can only be reinstated by battling Xian Pu again. I started to train myself to overcome this dratted bad eye sight. It took me many months to become good enough so that my bad eye sight isn't a liability anymore. My passion for Xian Pu didn't die down so much as I looked at my village. Compared to the rest of the world, it was primitive... Quaint in a way. It was then I looked closer at who lived in the village. The warriors were women, but the men did domestic chores. There seemed to be less of them when I arrived. There were many deaths and I now wonder how the Amazons would survive. The next two generations without any changes to the Laws doomed them. Even myself, an Amazon male has the only option of becoming a strong fighter to get a high ranking female to gain even a medicore of respect. It's hard to see realities of adulthood from dream time of childhood. Anyway, I was dismayed that she had found another one to replace you so quickly. It is difficult for me because it's my older brother, Rei Xor.

"Aww...nuts." Ranma thought.

Tensions had built up over the months as I improved in martial arts and coming over with some new techniques. I can fight without my glasses and I don't mistake a post for a person anymore, but it seems old beliefs die hard. People still thought me as weak and then Rei Xor challenged me. I could have refused to fight him because he was my brother and my idol when I was growing up. He lost my respect when he did this because he wanted to beat up a "weaker" person to prove how "strong" he is to Xian Pu. The last straw was that I did beat my brother in a duel over Xian Pu's honour. In that, I fear everybody lost. When he challenged me and I beat him, I lost my big brother, Rei Xor lost my respect and the village and mother lost me when they banished me. I am no longer an Amazon and under strict penalty of death if I ever return. The really worst part was that I even had to leave behind a friend and probably the only friend I had in the village. I am coming over to Japan. I might stay permanently. The village is too restrictive and most people seem to be leaving. I am beginning to understand how you felt when people were doing that to you. How did you stand it for so long without lashing out or cracking? I couldn't do that.

Ranma grimaced at the thought of his former life. He still couldn't believe it.

The ironic part is that most of the people who thought me as pathetic and it protected me from their schemes. Perhaps I was for a while, but I am leaving before they really realize how good I really am. I don't want to get caught up in their schemes. The truly sad part about it is that when they banished me, I felt like I was given a release. The village was never my home. They may have taken my past Amazon life, but Khun Lo had told me the truth about my heritage.

See you later, Ranma.

Mu Tse, formerly of the Amazons of Joketsuzoku/Nyuchezuu.

"Wow." Ranma said.

What was even more surprising was that Mousse showed up later that day.

The nurses and Ryouga thought he was here to give trouble. They didn't believe him when he said he just wanted to talk with Ranma. They were surprised when Ranma did let him throught. They talked for some time and others could see the surprise on Ranma's face. The fact that Ranma was speaking Chinese surprised Mousse. When Ranam came back, he personally gave them the ok for him to stay with him.

"Things are about to get interesting." Ranma thought later that night. He brought Mousse along because he was a part of this sorry situation.

When they talked, Mousse asked for Cream herself. Ranma suspected something that had to do with Cream crying two nights ago. Small pieces were being pulled together and they met with the common denominator of the Chinese Amazons. He told Mousse that he was going to see her soon and that it would probably be better to see her then.

Mousse agreed becasue he wasn't in a hurry. He just wanted to confirm what Cologne had told him.

When the night finally came for Cream to tell her story, Mousse came along. At first, Cream objected, but Ranma insisted because Mousse had a very large role to play and that he was no longer an Amazon.

Cream looked puzzled, but decided that they both were the closest thing to the Amazons as she will get. Mousse was mildly surprised that Ranma understood Chinese. Ranma said he just learned and that Cream could tell it better in Chinese than in Japanese.

She started her story at about two hundred years ago. It was a time of great change that would haunt the descendants of the Amazons later in life.

It was the time when the great epidemics and wars came to an end. The Amazons had finally kept the valley. Healers where as highly regarded as the warriors, but it was to soon change.

In the time of peace, the warriors became the dominant class warring with the healers for status. They were jealous of the number of people who wanted to become both healers and warriors. As time went on, a distinct shift of families aligned them in the warrior's camp and healer's camp.

It came to no one's surprise when the warrior's families secretly gathered support for themselves. They had thought themselves superior to all the other Amazons. There was also no wars that they ever lost, so the services of the healers were less appreciated. It was inevitable that people started to forget how much healers were needed. They were taken for granted as a right and only thought of them when necessary.

When the power shifted, everyone knew it. The challenges that weren't in favour of the warriors families were always bogged down in council. The big blow was that warriors slowly had more status that the healers until they became a true dominant warrior society.

To lead the charge was Tal Cum's family, yet this was their biggest mistake. In their blindness for power in the Amazon villages, they neglected to take into account that the healers were essential to keep the village healthy and that they were also formidable fighters in their own right. They only saw what they wanted to see, a weak bloodline.

The campaign made most of the healer families into warrior ones. This was worse for the Amazons because the Communist had gotten into power and started to attack them in earnest. They took a very heavy toll on Amazons from their hundreds of thousands to just about fifteen thousand.

They had great fighters, but they were hurt and only really had the skills to heal in the old way. The advanced ki techniques were lost as the Amazons dwindled until only Cream's family was the one with the special techniques. Lead poisonings and other dangers of the "modern world" weren't unknown because of bullets and land mines, but they change from healer to warrior status meant that the higher healing arts weren't being taught and many were lost.

Unfortunately, the ways of the Amazons changes very slowly and they were still subjected to the "mistakes" of the Amazons that had gotten most of her family killed until only her and her daughter survived...

It was then that Cream cried and cried until she got a hold of herself. Ranma and Mousse didn'thing because of who she was. They gave her the acknowledgement that she was strong enough to do this.

As she contined, she told them of the rape of her granddaughter, Lo Shun by Tal Cum's brother, Pon Ge, before he died in a Musk raid. The subsequent squabble that it was Lotion's fault. By then, Talcum had a huge influence on the council and could sway the vote any way she wanted.

It was just seven months later when Khun Lo, an ancient ally of Ka Heem's family, had come to her door and told her of the news. Lo Shun was dead in a training 'accident' with Tal Cum and that her child she was carrying for seven months was gone in a mysterious accident.

It made her numb, but suddenly most of the council were set to get her kicked off the council because she had no more family. It was argued and then a disagreement over one hundred and fifty years ago that Ka Heem had stolen the man before Tal Cum could get him came up. Even though it seemed ludicrous, the council voted to then kick her out of the Amazons. To Cream's and Khun Lo's amazement, it succeeded even though Khun Lo was the chairperson.

In their arrogance and their short sighted political gain, they wanted to give her the Xia Fang Ga (memory erasing), but it was Khun Lo told them that she would administered it. She erased the fighting techniques that Ka Heem had, but not the healing techniques. Ka Heem was the sole practitioner of them and no longer an Amazon, so her techniques were her own. More importantly, they weren't fighting techniques that the law specifically forbade in teaching to non Amazons. Ka Heem's family knew all of the Amazon's advanced 'healing' techniques where, in fact, came from her family and the other Amazon families that died. While it was true that it could become a fighting technique, its present form wasn't.

That is when Ka Heem left the village and disappeared into the world, never seen from until she saw Khun Lo. She travelled until she reached Japan and became the Head Nurse in this hospital.

Silence.

"Wow." both Ranma and Mousse thought.

I guess it is my turn. I will fill in some of the holes that you missed. Mousse said to a surprised Cream. It turned out that Tal Cum went with Lo Shun to meet Pun Ge. A small girl named Al Lo followed them because the girl admired Tal Cum. She was an adventurous girl and thought she was too close when all came back to the clearing in the forest. It was then that she suddenly saw her hit Lo Shun with a pressure point and gestured Pun Ge to do the deed. He looked sick and refused but was bullied by her and then threatened to kill Lo Shun painfully if he didn't do it. He did it as gently and quickly as he could. What she heard was even more devastating that turned the carefree child into a withdrawn child. Al Lo waited until they all left when she went back. She knew no one would believe her until she remembered Khun Lo. She told her and Khun Lo was sceptical, but she said she would keep an eye on Tal Cum. Cream's eyes were wide in the realization that Tal Kum planned this all along. The pieces started to fall into place. It was the murder of Lo Shun by Tal Cum and the taking of her baby before she died.

Flashback

The last words that Tal Kum uttered chilled Lo Shun as she died and Al Lo, Look at this boy, he will be under my care and a warrior, even a pitiful one, and not an even more pitiful healer. Your family is no more. Ever since your grand mother took the man I wanted, I had never forgiven her for that...

Lo Shun gasped, But you never wanted him and thought he was weak.. before she died

It doesn't matter if I didn't want him, you healers should have kept in your place to heal people and not interfere in the running of the Council, especially your grandmother, Ka Heem. she snarled to a corpse.

End of Flashback

Mousse continued, Al Lo reported back to Khun Lo and even the Matriarch was surprised by the viciousness of the act for a perceived slight. She tried all she could and did all she could to help Cream, but the Tal Kum was too powerful. Also, she worked in the shadows.

Seven months later, she was gathering herbs with Al Lo when Tal Cum came and ordered Lipstick to get something. Al Lo started to protest (she was given the job of watching and reporting back to Khun Lo), but was sent away. It seemed that Tal Cum forced Lo Shun to go with her to "discuss" things with her. Little did they know that Al Lo followed them and what followed would scar the little girl for the rest of her life and make her withdraw from the very village that she was to protect.

Mousse was crying at that point as he continued, My life wasn't my own. Tal Cum took the Hidden Weapons technique from me, but taught me nothing. She laughed at me and dolted on her real son, Rei Xor, my "brother". He was ...loved. he paused to catch his breath and continued, I was laughed at because of my eye sight and my obsession with Shampoo, but It came to a shock to me to find out from Khun Lo that she suspected my eye sight was damaged because of me going only to seven months than the full term. Tal Cum treated me lower than the lowest man in the village. I was to be laughed at, but she was still a warrior and taught me well in the only technique she allowed me to have.

It wasn't until I came to Nerima that I found what I have been missing. Real friends. When I returned to the village after your injury, I trained with, ironically, Al Lo who knew the secret and despite everything became a sparring partner. Then again after the attack that Kuno, Ryouga and I did to you, she became, I think, a friend. he sighed as he continued, Through all that time, my thoughts turned more and more away from Xian Pu and the village to just getting better. Without the Law of Marriage between you and Xian Pu, the things I had done to you and others in Nerima had come back to me. What was frightening was that Akane maimed you. It was supposed to be a head shot. then he grimaced, I may not see much, but that day I could almost see Akane and that...thing. It wasn't a mallet. If anything, it was a Super Hammer. By all accounts, you should have died.

He sighed and continued, As time went on, the obsession to Xian Pu dulled and that my 'brother' was seeing her also. I had always held him in high regard. At first, I couldn't believe it, but I didn't know what to do. Over time, as my obsession ebbed away, I found that Khun Lo actually helped me out a bit and that, instead of trying to marry Xian Pu, I actually wanted her to myself to be my friend...maybe that was the reason I was so obsessed with her. She was really the first person who stuck up for me.

As he looked out of a window into the darkness, he started again, Xian Pu and Rei Xor were an item, but I believe that it was his insecurity that goaded him into challenging me to "prove" himself to her and everyone else. I beat him, but with that win, I lost. People said I cheated by trickery and it finally dawned on my that I was never a part of the Amazons, but a joke to them. To be laughed at and be superior to, but a threat until I became a real warrior. After I wrote Ranma the letter, I told Khun Lo that I was leaving the Amazons. That was when she told me of what she knew and know I am here, great grand mother.

With that, they both hugged each other in tears. Ranma prudently wheeled away, not looking back, to not spoil the moment.

Ranma still sat there in silence. The dawn light had just come through the window as he went over what he had just heard. The petty squabbles about honour to those who didn't know the meaning of the word.

Ranma was surprised that Cologne resisted. She was like the staunchest of the "by the book" person. Despite his misgivings about her, he had to agree that she was the one you could count on when the chips were down. That brings him back to his current problem and also Cream's offer.

Cream and Mousse actually searched for him. They talked it over and Mousse would legally change his name.

It was then that Mousse started to tell Ranma about the plots against him. He didn't want to get into details since he wasn't an Amazon anymore, but Ranma had to know.

Even though he hated Ranma at the time, he still had respect for him and his duty to honour, begrudgingly. He may have been obsessive, but he wasn't stupid and there were limits to even where he would go. In ice cream shops and at Ranma mother's mansion, Mousse had spied on Shampoo and that was how he stumbled onto their plots. He told of how Nodoka had gotten them all together on many occasions and had formed a kind of group that slowly changed from trying to 'Marry Ranma' to 'Get Ranma Out Of The Way' club. Kasumi was the most vehement of all of them as she seemed to be taking all that Nodoka said as the truth, even though he couldn't believe it. Akane didn't change much because she almost believed him to be pervert already. The major change was her higher temper and disgust. Ukyou, hearing that her family was superior to the Satomes, was now looking down on him, which mirrored the expression on Kodatchi. Strangely, the only hold out was Nabiki until Nodoka moved her with money, but even then she was the least enthusiastic about it.

Shampoo was the one that surprised him the most. She didn't want Ranma. This was when it changed his perspective because he thought she was in love with him. She did it for honour only and it did affect how he viewed Ranma, although he didn't know it at that time. Honour was paramount to her as it was to all Amazons and the 'honour' changed him more than he knew. As much as he admired the Amazon warrior Shampoo had become, a grain of doubt was planted as he didn't see the 'mountain girl' that saved him from the bullies when he was young. Despite his obsession, he started to feel that this Shampoo wasn't the same as this one he fell in love with.

It was then that he heard from Shampoo herself that despite the Kiss of Marriage, she wouldn't have gone through with it as Nodoka said she knew how to solve all of their problems. The 'business ventures', the additional attacks by Ranma's rivals, the increasing violence against Ranma and finally the plan to kill Ranma and keep the money that had come from him from Nodoka and Kasumi, with the full endorsement of the others. That was when his hate for Ranma lessened as it seemed to him that Shampoo would never have married him. When he went over what he knew, it shocked him to find out that his love and his fiancees including Ranma's mother had always been behind a lot of his problems.

As Mousse finished, Cream interjected that honour was for those who could afford it. Despite what everyone else did, they all had their honour now. This left him to muddle over what had happened. He knows that he and Akane are quits and, despite his recent surge in marks, he wasn't all that certain he would make it to university. His future was in doubt. The worst part is that now he had time to think of all of the people in his life, especially his mother.

He did feel that he was giving up if he did change his name, but with resolve he looked closely at his so called life. A martial artist followed the Code. Loyalty, benevolence, bravery, self control and honour above life. The first four he understood, but the fifth made him pause.

What is honour? By all rights, the Matriarch Tal Cum conducted herself honourably while doing horrible things to Cream's family. Almost all the other Matriarchs did nothing to prevent it to keep their power base. They turned a blind eye to her intentions and it was still considered honourable if they didn't acknowledge it or were too weak to oppose it.

As he mulled over these thoughts, he thought about his life and realized that his life was really crappy. Since his near death injuries, he had lost three fiancees, gained many real friends and a motherly head nurse. It suddenly hit him that honour was defined by what culture they lived in, but most importantly who controlled it. As Genma had said, rumours could have destroyed honour, if his friends hadn't come and discredited it, and he alone couldn't have stopped it. His enemies were very strong and really the people who believed it weren't the people he would ever want to know.

The main question was who defined what honour was? It was said that we only borrow our ancestor's names and we must leave it untarnished or redeem it. She was from a very predominant family, but at the same time she went against their wishes when she married Genma. He never did find out if they forgave her, but if they didn't then where was her honour? At the same time, it occurred to him that the Satome honour was an illusion. By the actions of Genma, he had tarnished it beyond belief and it spilled over to him. By society, he was given the task to clean it up and if not him then by his children. The scary part was what if someone deliberately did it to make him clean it up? It was his mother.

He realized that honour was what other though of you. Despite what he would say, his former mother would have more honour because of her position and age. She had manipulated those around her (not that they needed really any persuasion) to set traps and pitfalls that would lead him to destroy his honour without ties back to them preserve theirs. This led him to his other dilemma. His real concern was if he still wanted to be a Satome. Before this incident, he did, but now he wasn't so sure. To abandon one's name was a monumental decision. He would be a ronin, a person without a family. He would be dishonoured because he turned his back on his 'responsibilities' even though many were put there deliberately to try to destroy him.

The additional problem was that, fortunately or unfortunately depending on the circumstances, he had gained a deeper appreciation and feelings for Urd. Ami was a mystery to him because he even as he liked her, there seemed a barrier like when he was friends with Ukyou, a barrier to not get hurt. He may have been clueless, but he still could feel the tension.

The biggest surprise was the looks given by Sammi. He liked her, but she seemed way to young for him. She seemed to appreciate him more than just a friend. They were helping him through his predicament and seem to take his well being as being very important, unlike a certain tomboy, Amazon and okonomiyaki chef and the rest who just added to his problems.

"Ahhh! This can't be happening again!" thought a weary Ranma.

Now, he could also clearly see the crush Sammi had already on him and it didn't bother him. Wow. Before he wouldn't have noticed it or would have panicked. Urd and Ami were different. He felt some bond to them as if a half memory resurfaced. It was so much better if he was still so clueless then he wouldn't have to deal with his raging hormones, but he did and would have to deal with the consequences.

Hee sighed and thought, "Responsibility. So concerned was everybody with honour that they forgot the responsibility that accompanied it. His parents failed him. With Genma, Ranma had to fend for himself and against his stupid promises except for martial arts. His mother wasn't much better. He was never invited to the Satome house, she accepted him only grudgingly admitting that he was the best martial artist she had seen and she never said she loved him or, come to think of it, like him."

He liked Cream. Feisty old bird with a soft heart. She had endured a lot more hardships than anyone else he knows. She had even offered to adopt and get away from that dratted Satome name that has plagued his life for the last two years.

He is grateful. No one had done this before. He will give it some thought.

He had the real respect of the hospital and the patients, a lot more than in his old life. They saw him for who he is and not what people wanted him to turn into. That started him thinking about his life and if someone looked into his mind they would have seen a person more complex than they realized. His mind would categorize them as if he were to do battle with them. This was the way he was taught by Genma, to expect the unexpected. He had assessed them already, but never really thought about it because of the constant attacks and mallots he got before the new person who kidnapped Akane again.

Akane. The name itself had given him more than one day of grief. He never really considered her an enemy, but an egotistical brat that he had started to fall in love with.

With the attack that had changed his life, it had come to him finally that she isn't his fianc e or even a friend anymore, but a stranger. He had hoped in his heart of hearts that things could have worked out, but he was never given a chance. He now understood why. The constant arguing and violence would have only gotten worse if she was his wife when she would have then thought that she was too good for him.

To be fair, she was a pretty girl. Also if what Ryouga had found out about her was true then she was better than the third dan of Tendo Anything Goes Style with a high strength level that only showed. She has a high loyalty to her family and has shown bravery.

On the other hand, she has a code of a martial artist, but... it only extends to anyone who she considered worthy of her attention, mostly female. To them, she is a usually nice and kind person. She does yell at Ukyou and Shampoo, but never uses violence on them. She was always give benefit of doubt to them, but not him.

As an example of what she did to him, she was fully capable of hurting someone permanently. To anyone male that she deems unfit, she was indiscriminately violent. He saves her and her family from Toma, Herb and Saffron then she mallets him after. Even when he threw away cure to save her, she still mallet him later. She was assigning blame to him when he was clearly not at fault.

He would call her the biggest hypocrite of his life, even bigger than his father. She always accused him of being a perverted by having Shampoo or Ukyou glomping him, but then turned around and really found someone else as if that was her right.

The others weren't much better with Kasumi and his mother being the worst of the bunch.

Little did he know that he would make his decision sooner than he thought.

In the hospital, the nurses on duty saw Ranma zooming by and sighed. He had changed so much from that jerk they thought he was to a very handsome young man. Many of them started dreaming about what could be...

On the roof of the hospital sat a dejected goddess.

As she sat on the roof dangling her legs, she began to think about that certain pig tailed martial artist. Despite her sexual overtures, he resisted. She was well aware that he knew what she was doing, but was trying to let her down slowly. She felt somewhat annoyed, but, surprisingly, it intrigued her. With that said, she didn't understand why it annoyed her or why she was attracted so much to him. Something stirred at the very edge of her memory and was just out of her reach, its tantalizing message was maddened her to no end.

Suddenly she felt a surge, it was from the Yggdrasil system. She was the system administrator after all. As ran down stairs to a room with a television, she teleported up to find out the problem.

His mother had just come into the hospital.

Author's notes:

Time for crisis.

I was planning to place Cream leaving in the Cultural Revolution where she and all of her family would be exiled into the hands of the Chinese Army. They would be defenceless because of the memory erasing formula used to take anything Amazon from then including fighting techniques. The men would be tortured and the women raped until they died. Cream would watch until she snapped and overcame the memory erasing technique. She would have killed all the murders and rapists. About a battalion.

She would kill more of solders until a General came and calmed her down. Her family were healers and did heal the Chinese soldiers. He was one of the soldiers they healed. He and his army were ashamed and dishonoured by what those men had done to her family. The General would let her pass with escort to Japan and still be in her debt. 


	12. Chapter 8

CHAOS SQUARED

Chapter 8

Past and Present Dishonour

"It had come to this." Ranma thought of his mother coming.

He steeled himself, but a deep sinking feeling started to grip him. A fear like no other, surfaced.

The time had come.

It was time to face his greatest fear, even more than the Nekkoken. His mother. The one person he truly trusted and betrayed him. He wanted to know why she did this to her own son.

As he sat there in thought, the door opened and in strolled in his mother. It was as he remebered her, strong and in full control. Also, looking at her in a new light, he saw the lines of hostility that she failed to mask and her aura that let him know of her deception. She hadn't realized that he had become much better so that he can see auras.

There were different emotions that had different colours, but only one was the colour of night. Hate.

In kind he responded to a challenge. Sought out weaknesses in his opponent and found questions were unanswered.

His mind In a flash of insight, he knew that it wasn't what he had done that she hated him, but perhaps what he represented and something that had happened to her.

So engrossed in what his mother was doing, he didn't see a tiny speck of black that moved into the room. Sasuke.

Ranma thought as he and his mother studied each other, "Might as well get the ball rolling." and said, "Hello, mother." in a neutral voice.

His mother didn't answer immediately, not knowing what to make of this. She had come here to get her "son" to the Tendos by being his mother, but she saw something that reminded her of...Jiro and all her anger resurfaced. She tried to calm down, but Ranma's stare was like his and suddenly she said in a haughty voice, "S-o-n, you are to come home with me. Tell Dr. Tofu that you will come with me."

As soon as she had spoken, Ranma hard a tiny intake of breath from in the room, "No."

Her eyes widened and with that one reply, she exploded (as if she was Genma) "What an ungrateful b-o-y you are. You owe me your life..."

Ranma interrupted, "But...you had taken away my life and honour."

Her eyes narrowed and scoffed, "YOUR HONOUR. You have no honour from the day you were born. Your were illegitimate. A BASTARD like you father."

This made him pause, HONOUR had been his life, but honour was a subjective thing. People in powerful positions do dishonourable things all the time in the name of honour and get away with it.

"Of course, like my father, but not Genma."

This in itself caught her off guard, but she recovered, "So you figured it out. No matter, You will never know your father as honourless as you are. He ran away the day I told him that I would have his child. I on the other had still have my honour."

"Honour? Ha. The Satome name is a joke. Genma made sure of that."

She smiled, "Oh, but my clan isn't Satome and you won't know that either."

"Yes, you will never be anyone." she said spitefully.

Ranma settled back, relaxed, which made her uneasy.

His attitude chafed at her, "He should have more fear." she thought furiously.

"So what?"

Again his reply caught her off guard, "So what? My family has more honour than you."

"Yes, but remember, deeds cut deeper than words." the full implication his Nodoka like a train.

She recovered, "I don't know how you found out, but it doesn't matter..."

"Oh, I won't say that. In a month, I will be eighteen and as I told Kasumi I keep my promises."

In that moment, she acted, she still had the right to kill him because of the Seppuku pledge, but it would take too long for her to get him out by the court before he turns eighteen.

She then vanished using the Umisenken without the traditional yell as she tried to attack him. Unfortunately for her, she forgot the rule of not using a technique that another person have mastered already.

He already knew from the cloth she pulled out that she was going to disappear. What she forgot was that as he mastered it, he modified it also. He knew that the one weakness of it was that it didn't defeat his danger sense and his heightened senses could feel the movement of the air. It was when he pulled energy from the environment because he had to know where the energy was. When she moved, he could feel a small discharge of energy in the air and anticipated where she would hit.

Both she and her sword appeared and slashed at the spot where he was. Her blade was as black as the Void as it came down and it was then Sasuke acted, but it was too late. Until, two hand flashed out faster than the eye and redirected the sword so that it went all the way down the hilt. Before she could react, Ranma slapped her, HARD. Like Urd, her only thought was that he hit her.

A commotion came from the door as Cream, Ryouga, Mousse, Ryo and Ami came rushing into the room. Urd wasn't far behind. She had found that choas was building up and it was playing havoc with the system as in more bugs popping up. Belldandy's new anti-viral program was working great, but she had to be there to oversee the installation and fix anything wrong with it.

They saw a serene Ranma with a shocked Sasuke and a stupified Nodoka on the floor.

Before Nodoka could say a word, Cream said very quietly like death knocking, "Leave, you aren't needed or wanted here."

Nodoka was about to say something when they saw their expressions, she stiffened her shoulders and cast an hateful eye at Ranma only to find, one of pure fire from him enough to melt through her hate which turned into fear before she quickly left. But before she left, she said with all the dignity and venom she had, "You are no longer my son."

Ranma's eyes became like deep pools of glacier ice and replied, "How can I be your son when you have never been or even attempted to be a mother to me?"

As she went to pick up the Satome scabbard, Ranma said, "Leave it, you have dishonoured it enough. More than even Genma could ever do." She stiffened when she heard that. She was escorted to by three nurses to the door to make sure she left.

Back in the room, Ranma had a huge sigh of relief. A huge weigh left his shoulders, it turned out better than he though it would. Besides, being a ronin was better than having the Satome name. No end of trouble.

Sasuke knew what he had to do. He went to Master Kuno and talked with him about the decision. Master Kuno said he wanted to be there when he revealed the truth about Ranma.

He waited until Kuno had arrived, with Urd and Cream accompanying him to "supervise". Despite wanting to be with Ranma in his moment of need, the look Cream and Urd had given the other nurses were enough for them to be silent for now.

As Sasuke looked at everyone in the room and felt that they all were part that had made Ranma. The Cream, Urd, Ryouga, Mousse, Sammi and her pet Ryo, but most surprisingly Ami also.

It was time to break the silence, "Ranma, ronin." said Sasuke in a firm voice, as if he had given Ranma a formal title.

"Yes, Sasuke of the Sarugakune ninja clan." he replied unconsciously replying to the his tone that something really, really important was coming.

Sasuke remained still but inside he rejoiced. Ranma responded exactly like his father would have in using his full name. More to the point, he said it, unconsciously, in the full formal tone the situation required. Ranma had done this, accepting his ronin status and bore it as he should.

It was time to start at the beginning...

Even with his decision Sasuke hesitated.

"It was a decision made and kept. Something that should have been told long ago." He thought with a sigh. Everyone was silent. This story might have been for Ranma only, but these people, no matter where they came from was more family to him then his own.

Looking at Ranma, he couldn't help but marvel at the boy... no... man he had become. He could see Renjiro Tanaka in his face and with his character. Another sigh had come through. He had been doing that a lot. With a grim smirk, that he didn't think at all funny he started again.

"It started about eighteen years ago when a man, Renjiro of the Tanaka Clan, was betrothed to a young woman, Nodoka of the Meiji Clan."

A rustle of movement came from the shocked people. The Tanaka and Meiji clans were two of the oldest and most powerful in Japan. They were second in line just behind the Imperial Families in prestige and lineage. They were also currently in a blood feud that simmered down after an Imperial decree for some unknown reason almost twenty years ago.

"It was a arranged marriage where in this very rare occasion, they fell in love." Sasuke continued, "All would have been well if, his cousin, Yoko, didn't object." his eyes losing focus as he retraced the memories of the past, "At that time, she was married to a very great man, Master Kaemon Kuno."

The others looked at the shocked expressions from Ranma, Ryouga and Mousse and a face fault simultaneous to end all face faults shook the hospital as the rest sweatdropped.

"He was a great man." then with a bowed head he said again, "A very great man. That is why my family had served the Kunos for so long and well. It was then that I arrived. I was to take over from the senior ninja serving them, Goro. Before this generation, the Kuno were a very noble family and commanded great respect, even with the Imperial family, but all changed when the elder Kunos arranged a marriage for their son to a distant cousin of the Tanaka Clan, thus uniting the clans.

After a sigh, Sasuke continued, "After their marriage, a great change occurred in the young Mrs. Kuno and in her elevated position she started to demand many outrageous things that Mr. Kuno spend more time with her, even when he was in a high level meetings. Very soon after that, she started cutting ties with anyone Mr. Kuno knew. They had many legendary arguments that night and slept in separate rooms.

As Sasuke started to break down, he bravely continued, "It wasn't very long when something strange happened. Mr. Kuno became...unstable and then obsessed with...Hawaii when he didn't even like leaving Japan." No one interrupted him, "More trouble brewed when Mrs. Kuno disliking Nodoka Meiji. I am sorry to say that Mrs. Kuno was spoiled by her parents and siblings, but now Nodoka was taking Renjiro and the spotlight, she couldn't stand it. She had a crush on Renjiro ever since she was a little girl. In her eyes, he was her samurai and she was his lady, even though she was married. She even went as far as trying to get Renjiro to cancel the marriage, but he refused." It was then that Sakaske had gone very quiet.

No one could miss that Sasake never called Mrs. Kuno by her first name. They all could feel that to him, she was never worthy and would never acknowledge her name. It was almost the ultimate insult to the person in death, to be forgotten by the next generation.

Sasake took a deep breath and pushed onwward. "It was on that fateful day that Mrs. Kuno summoned Goro. She said she wanted this threat to be eliminated. She told him where this person would be and would be wearing a green hat.

She also wanted it to look like an accident. Goro knew that he could do this alone, he took me along because it was my first, but not my last assignment. He also wanted to ease me in slowly.

"It was at the time when the biggest hurricane that ever hit Japan made landfall, Hurricane Jasmine. We felt omens in not going though with our sworn duties and that great consequences would arise if we did. Blind to our duty, we stepped out and the world howled as the hurricane had come. That didn't deter us and since we knew where our target would be, it was decided for the situation that a traffic accident would be the most appropriate in this weather. The person was there, on time at the very street corner when we struck. Goro was a professional and did things himself. He wanted me to check that the person was dead.

"As I approached the person, I saw something that made my heart run cold. The person had a pigtail. The pattern was unmistakable, but I kept on telling myself that it couldn't be possible. It was then I decided to call an ambulance.

"When I returned, I told Goro what had happened. He said I shouldn't have done that, but instead of biding me to finish the job and then return to the Kuno mansion, he sent me to watch Renjiro to make sure nothing happened to him. The ambulance attendants found who he was and rushed him to the best hospital in the area. Right here at the Hospital where he died. It was then I returned to Goro and we returned. Goro informed Mrs. Kuno and she left with 'her' servants, but even I was surprised when I observed her taking Renjiro's body away.

"I wanted to know what had happened, but he said he would tell me when the time was right. It was years later when he was dying that he actually told me. He said that he told Mr. Kuno and confronted Mrs. Kuno with this.

"Before anything happened, she hit Mr. Kuno with some sort of power, but he managed to evade some of it. She said that all the men in her life weren't worth anything. They were to be controlled. She had laughed that was worse than Mistress Kodatchi's. Her eyes had that crazy look and...she was crazy. In high school, she had delved into drugs that no one she have had and when they couldn't get her the drugs then she made it herself. She hid it well from everyone in her family, but Goro felt that Renjiro was her anchor in life, always there for her. When he was to be married to Nodoka, she snapped. She said Renjiro betrayed her to that slut and he had to pay. She also said that he would serve her because she now had Mr. Kuno in her power. The drug was highly hypnotic and she would brook no interference from him, a lowly ninja.

"She was highly manipulative and vengeful. She told Nodoka that he didn't want to see her again and that he married and went overseas. His parents were distraught and with no word from Renjiro that was so unlike him, but they were forced by tradition and honour to disowned him for failing them. It was then that the Meiji family blamed them for theri former son's behaviour and a feud broke out between them. Mrs. Kuno took care of that no one ever found him. Nodoka was heartbroken. She was consoled both her and Renjiro's friend, Satome Genma. Even though Genma was your official father, you are Renjiro's son. You are the very image of your father, right down to his pigtail.

Silence until Kuno started to speak.

"What you never knew was that the drugs that actually affected her the most was the ones she made herself. If affected her so much to the point of having my Uncle embalmed and tucked in a secret room. I had found out about this when I heard her talking to someone. As a child, sometime I looked into her room to see who she was talking to. When I saw "uncle" I had nightmares for days afterwards.

He paused to gather himself, "She... talked to him a lot. From being angry with him for betraying her to pleading with him to forgive her. I had snuck into her room and when I found her talking to him, I couldn't sleep for weeks without screaming at night." A shocked silence. "As you know she passed on, but said that her room was never to be disturbed and it hadn't. She passed on her skills well to Kodatchi. At least Kodatchi she was never malice in her use of it.

A silence then he continued, "She named us with the full irony of the situation. Tatewaki was bringer of the sword with the face of the family, but Kodatchi was the sword who wielded the power."

A surprise was when Cream started, "I guess this is where I come in. The only thing that had been missing was the final part in the hospital.

"I was on duty that night when Renjiro was brought in. Yes, he was still alive. He was given one of the best room, but knew that he had little time left. He bade me to give him some paper, something to write and an envelope. I was amazed that with the injuries he sustained that he could still conscious. I hurriedly got them and he started writing. I didn't realize that he had no ink, so he improvised. He used his... own blood. He even sealed the envelope himself and addressed it to Nodoka. It only after that supreme act was when he died."

Suddenly she produced the letter and laid it in front of Ranma. She knew it was his decision. He was a ronin, but would he take up this responsibility from his father.

Looking at the letter, it was addressed to Nodoka and Ranma or Ranko. Ranma picked up the letter. This was closure for this sorry experience. He wouldn't read it as it was clearly intended for another.

Shaking himself, he made a resolution that he wouldn't be caught unprepared like what put him here.

In the corny Disney cartoon that he once saw at an exhibition in Tokyo, the character's expression seemed appropriate.

Darkwing Duck said, "Let's get dangerous."

With that, things changed. Urd, Sammi with Ryo and Ami felt the change in the air. Things were never going to be the same again.

It was months since his fateful encounter with his mother and the secrets that were out into the light. He looked at the letter and sighed as he paused in his kata. Many things have changed.

To begin with, he started actually perfecting his own style and creating a whole new school instead of just gaining a new move. He had many moves from his previous life, including the Amazon techniques plus others such as his Mouko Takabisha, Happo Five Yen Setsu and his fathers Forbidden Techniques after the Failed Wedding Attempt.

The very last thing his father said when he taught him the final parts of the katas all those years ago was that he was the only one who would use them properly. This was really the only time he could remember when his former father was totally serious and a person to be respected. A true meeting of father and son.

Added to that the weapons techniques and knowledge that resided in The General Hospital. Under these conditions, Ranma started to excel in many areas that he never could before. The defensiveness of his masculinity had eroded. Everyone accepted him for who he was, curse and all. The expectations had changed. He had changed to an extent that even he didn't realize. For the first time in a very long time, he could actually relax. In that time, he really started to look forward towards his future. In the end, he discussed it with the others and decided to keep his name. When...he left the hospital, he will face them. They understood that to become adopted by Tofu would give him the easy way out.

The tensions that had been around the hospital subsided and so did the distractions. For the first time in his life, he was doing what he liked and not what someone else expected. In his newfound look on life, he didn't want to let the only people who stood by him down. As he put 110% into everything he did, he started to do much better in his studies and in life in general that even Ami was surprised. Once he finally understood what was needed, his analytical skills in battle made him a quick study. His broad range of knowledge of people, places and history rivaled her own and that wasn't including that he actually travelled to those places like Ryouga. The confidence translated itself into his stories that he included with each place enraptured her and the others and made them all laugh. Without knowing it, he drew her out like everyone else of their protective shells against the world and made them realize what a truly wonderful world they lived in. Ami was especially affected as they talked which was just as much as they studied. Her friends would never have believe their eyes when they saw this side of Ami.

Not to be outdone, the other nurses monopolized his time when he was training with his old rivals. They teased them all and allowed them to be themselves without pressure, drugs or obsession. Sammi and Ryo played as much as she could before she tired. She always smiled for him because he treated her like anyone else, not with pity. Laughter rang thoughout the hospital as most of the patients waited for Ranma's daily rounds through the hospital. His languages had improved and with Ami helping him in writing, he was actuallly more fluent than she was.

It was at that point that a thought whisphered in his mind...

The core which Ranma wrapped his own style was from a long forgotten memory that surfaced. The very essence of the Anything Goes Style. It was basicially that humans were everchanging. They had the seeds in them with the potential to be anything they want, but only the truly unique individuals could actually achieve it. It was that spark that gave them the boundless energy to become good or bad, saviour or a tyrant, or even a god or a demon.

Energy flows through the universe until a harmony is reached, but where does this energy come from? It comes from living things. Actions and thought affect everything, no matter how small or insignificant, they eventually do affect who we are, for better or worse.

Ranma had always felt that within everyone was the potential of being better than you were, of being one with the universe and setting things right that went horribly wrong. He felt, it was his Destiny.

To that extent, he started slowly form his own style, combing aspects of all that he knew. For the sum to be greater than the individual parts. Of using his ki, chi and to eventually feel the very essence of the universe, but more importantly to find out who he was inside.

He had heard others saying that just beating your sensei was mastery or going on one or more quests to overcome obstacles. The difference was that for him, without knowing who and what he was, he would simply be another wannabe martial artist and would never really believe that he attained mastery in the Art. He already knew what he was physically capable of. To know thyself is the hardest for anyone to accomplish, but especially hard for Ranma with all that he went through becasue it was the path he had never really travelled. It is said that the for true self discovery was the true test that toughens up the mind, body and spirit. To pass this would make the recognition of being a Master a mere formality.

He didn't know it when he made his decision, but he had already decided to undergo the journey when he felt the time was right. It was the time when he felt that he had learned all that he could and needed to go on to the next level. It would almost be like an instinct for him to the next logical step.

As he practiced his modified his new style and special techniques, Ranma knew it was time. Dr. Tofu and the others felt this. From what his former father and the other martial artists had said, each of the Masters of the Anything Goes has their own way of traveling on the journey. It was on the very day that he decided to try to perfect his art when Happosai dropped by. The nurses went on alert, but were surprised when he just passed them without so much as a feel. They all found him in Ranma's room and talking with him. The gravity of the exchange made everyone hesitate to bother them. From the surprised expression on Ranma's face that turned serious, they knew that something was up and it became truly apparent when Happosai gave him a scoll and then bounded out without a single look back or even a glance at the nurses assembled.

Ranma had looked at the Rite of Mastery of the Anything Goes scroll. When he initially opened the scroll, he thought it was a joke. It was a blank scoll, but the power that he felt from the scoll belayed that assumption. He was surprised when Happosai came to him and told him of the Mastery of the Anything Goes.

He still remembered the very words of what Happosai said when he told him that he wasn't able to be with Anything Goes, "Pah, you have been always special Ranma. For good or ill, you still have exemply the potential of being anything you want. It includes being the greatest of the Anything Goes school. Others place great faith in quests, whether physical or spiritual, throught the land or through other dimensions, but that isn't the Anything Goes way.

"Each person who goes through the Anything Goes Trial has a unique journey. No two journeys are exactly alike, like people. Physically and mentally, you have achieved what is to be a Master. The spiritual journey is much harder, it will show you whether you are ever fit to be a Grandmaster. Yours will be the most difficult of all to face because I can sense that the kamis are a big part of your life. The scroll itself is a spell component and if... when... you come back, if you pass, the scroll will come back in time for you to give to your student. It comes to a master to give to his student, but only when the student is ready.

"The Anything Goes Mastery isn't just overcoming obstacles and learning form them, it is to be who you really are. Not the puppet like Genma would like, not the pervert that Akane always said you were, not the bane of everyone's existence, but only who you think you are, who you want to be.

"If you remember anything in your Mastery journey, remember this." as he took a deep breath, "What you are about to face IS the thing very thing you will need to show you, to be who you are. Be it physical, mental or spiritual, this will test you to the very limits.

"Ranma, you will know what to do when the time comes."

A short time later when Ranma was ready, he requested that everyone be present. The nurses who befriended him, his rivals and his friends of the hospital. As he clutched the scroll, he surprised everyone when he ask Urd to be the one to read from the scoll. Before the amazed eyes of everyone, words started to appear. Urd was extremely surprised that it was in ancient Asgardian. The spell was called, A journey into Chaos. When she started to chant, it was as if a light went off in his head and he realized that the only way to really know who he was was to know who he had been. Either he will accept it or be broken by it. There was no middle ground.

As the chanting went on, he started to relax into a mediative state, the mind becomes free to wander at will to anyplace it wishes to go. To start it, he decided a soothing person was needed. Urd was truly the only one to make him feel totally at ease. He felt...connected to her, so it seem fitting for her to start the rite.

When Urd was finished, she looked as surprised as everyone and sighed. Ranma will have the hardest of all of journey, but if he makes it he would be a Chaos Nexus and also an immortal. She was estatic that he had made the cut. Deep inside, he had the power, but will he be willing to be a god and to accept her?

Ami too was anxious, but she chalked it up to be worried for him. As the months of tutoring him wore on, she had started to remember Ranma as a "Fop of the Court" and totally beneath her attention. She ironically was betrothed to him, but favoured another. Even though she likes him now as she didn't back then. It was till fuzzy to her after that, as if she was missing something then the pieces started to fall together. What she remembered, she realized that she made a grievous mistake in her previous life that she now had to fix.

Sammi and Ryo looked on. The anti-Jurai energy was eating away at her. Even with the best this hospital could do, it wouldn't be enough, but Tsunami was adamant that she could be cured, a little raven told her. She knew that she didn't have long to live, but...she wanted to now more than ever. Ranma was different than anyone she had ever known. He treated her like no other, not even Techni. When she looked at him, his endless optimism and his ability to make the impossible possible made her want to live...for him.

The basis principle was this. Fight poison with poison. The anti-Jurai energy was a form of Chaos. Chaos was a random element that influences life energy. Too much Chaos usually kills the individual, either by accidents or disease. Only certain individuals could withstand the influence of too much Chaos and in ways can regulate that energy to serve them than kill them.

Cream was just plain worried. She didn't really know what would happen, but she knew how important this was. She looked at the other nurses and the same echoed in their eyes, "What would happen next?"

As the hour passed, an explosion could be heard. Urd sensed the change as Ami's beeper went off...they were under an attack.

As choas ensued, Ranma went on, oblivious to everything and no one noticed when the scoll started to glow and break into little lights that circled Ranma and the absorbed into his body.

Author's note.

Time for change. 


	13. Chapter 9

CHAOS SQUARED - FIRST ARC

Chapter 9

On the Road to Change

The attack was actually one last attempt by the remnants of the Dark Empire. They neutralized the Senshi, but not one fully enraged Goddess. A couple of Urd bolts scattered the pathetic attack.

As he had come out of it, people started to pester him about what had happened.

Surprising them, he turned the tables on them when he asked what happened with all that damage in the area. The Senshi proudly told them what they did, but he could see Urd putting her face in her hands. He would find out later what really happened and did. They on the other hand didn't find out what happened to him. He told them it was private and they respected that. Although Sailor Mercury knew something was up when he gave her a searching look.

What he did give them was a direction he pointed. As they looked, they saw... well... a Goddess. She had a slim and graceful figure with a face of a cat and no one could mistake her for anyone else.

Bastet, Goddess of children, pregnant women and pleasure. She was the mother of all cats.

Before she vanished, she came over to Ranma and touched his forehead and whispered something to him that only he heard and then said aloud, "Go forth and embraccce your desssstiny."

What surprised them all was that he started changing. He clutched his head as things came rushing into his head. His muscles were getting more defined and his eyes became slitted. As he calmed down, he moved with grace and power. The biggest difference was the power was behind those smothering eyes. Much more than even after Saffron and fully contained, but was there waiting to be unleashed if necessary.

As people gaped, Urd vowed to find out what happened and how Ranma knew Bastet.

A month later

It was time he left the hospital. The doctors fully discharged him and thanked him for his help. His, Ryouga and Mousse's ability to see auras had helped them diagnosed diseases in many people.

Ranma was happy to leave into the world, but saddened to leave a place that was more like home to him than anywhere else. So much had happened to him that he hadn't had time to sort it out yet. There was a tearful farewell by the staff, especially Cream and Urd.

The feelings for Urd that he had before had intensified with his memories. She had extracted a promise from him to see her at the temple when he felt that he was ready. She knew full well that always keeps his promised.

He formally presented the cheque to the hospital. They both gasped when they saw it. When they told him that it was too much, he told them that it was the place where he made a new start and new friends.

They remembered his farewell in the children's ward.

Flashback

The children were sad to see him go and may tried to hold their tears back, but couldn't. He did tell them that he will comeback to visit and that he will have more stories to tell them. They immediately perked up, but were still sad.

The last person in the children's ward he saw was Sammi. The doctors weren't hopeful of her recovery. The doctor and nurse on duty stepped back when he came, knowing the special bond between them.

Ranma went up to her and saw her fear because she knew she was dying and she didn't want to. With his new abilities, he also recognized another form in her ki, Tsunami, from his trip into mastery. He looked into her aura and said, "Little one, I have one last present for you."

With that, he placed both hand over the back of her and started pumping his life force into the area in high volume. He learned this from some of the scrolls in the library. The refined method was to feel the person's life force and try to mimic it. From there to pump the ki into the injury for it to close up. If it was a disease then an influx of a lot of power so that the body natural healing would overcome it. It was as dangerous for the recipient as for the wielder as both could die from using too much ki.

In his trip into mastery, he had been reliving all of his lives. One of his lives included the relations with the Jurai. He realized as he remembered the attack during the transfer by Kagato was that he used a deadly attack. By any other name it was death energy or just anti-ki, energy that cancels out any type of energy that is produced by living things, especially Jurai energy. Ranma understood that ki can do little about the anti-ki energy, but what if... you can PUSH it out of her body with more ki than it could handle. This would save her. All he had to do was flood her body to the brink and force it out.

Everyone could see that Sammi seemed to glow brighter and brighter until they could see a dark the splotch on her chest that seemed to radiate tentacles. As more energy was pumped in, the splotch started to move and being pushed as the two energies battled for supremacy. He found that despite his knowledge, his magic, his power; it wouldn't be enough. He was just short of the amount he needed as he kept on pumping and the chi kept on fighting him. The splotch tried to grow more quickly, but the only direction it could go was up and away from Sammi. He could see it try to move away, but he kept on directing it to it. Ranma knew that he had to keep going and suddenly, Ryouga was there, with Mousse and Ka Heem and the other nurses and even Ryo who jumped on his head lent her power. They were lending their ki to his to save Sammi.

As the battle was being lost, Ranma bent over and muttered for only Sammi to hear, "Please Sammi, you must help also. You must live." Sammi opened her eyes at that point and just nodded as she felt the others help also. Ranma would never tell, but he could swear that he felt, not only Sammi, but another as well. They were linked and he felt their determination and they both pushed together. The nurses, Mousse, Ryouga, Dr. Tofu and then Ka Heem fell to the side as they could give no more. Now only both Ranma and Sammi were left and both started to glow brightly and after an infinite amount of time, the splotch on her chest broke the surface of her skin and it fell from her chest. With contact with the air, it started to disintegrate as the air with too little chi to sustain it until it was no more.

Ryouga and Mousse were in awe. The amount of ki used was more than they thought anyone could have. It more than dwarfed the powers of Kirin, Herb and Saffron combined.

Everyone was turned to Sammi. "Was it enough? Or was it too much of a shock to her system?" they all wondered. Ranma still had his hands on Sammi's back an he started to stir. Moments after, to everyone's delight, Sammi stirred and then struggled to move. Ryo was ecstatic as she jumped from his head to hers. Sammi was doing so much better. A second later after the cheers, she fell down and everyone held their breath until she got up and gave Ranma a huge glomp, knocking him over onto his back.

Silence.

At first a chuckle then Ryouga started laughing and then Mousse then the laughter started and flowed through the room. Ranma, who was in shock, could see that Sammi was better, but with his enhanced senses could also see that another being who was doing better as well. The doctor immediately hustled Sammi out of the room and to the examination table to run some tests. Ryo ran after them.

It was later found that the wasting disease was gone, but they were taking no chances and put her in observation. This was the first time the disease had been defeated. This had to be written up and then reality came and they thought no one will believe them. Most of the world didn't know that this kind of powerful chi exists.

End of Flashback

The very day after he left the hospital

Both Mr. Kuonji and Ukyou were completely surprised when their lawyers told them that the contract by one Ranma was complete. It stunned both of them when they found out that Ranma himself had just walked into their lawyer's office and delivered it. He had been completely polite and professional when he met their lawyers and Ukyou's fiancee, Hakura. The lawyers gave the confirmation that the full payment of the one hundred million yen (about 10 million US dollars). Ranma gave them a curt nod and told them that all the terms of the contract was now fulfilled and wanted a receiipt.

His last words were, "Our business is finally finished for good."

Later, despite the attempts to keep it quiet, they did find out through other channels that Ranma's dishonour wasn't actually his. His was the one who had his honour trampled upon.

They would find out that money was one thing. The prestige and honour that Ranma had generated would have outstripped anything they could have imagined.

Both Shampoo and Ukyou had forgotten the one rule with Ranma.

Never say impossible when taking about him.

Later

He was looking forward to the future.

The tests for university were written and he had pulled his grades up just enough to get squeak into get a letter of invitation to the University of Tokyo. He also applied to many Universities around the world. He wanted to get away from Nerima. Surprisingly, Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, Oxford, Cambridge, Hamburg, Paris, British Columbia and Toronto were ones who responded to him.

From the hospital, Ranma said his final farewell as he walked toward the Tendo Dojo.

As he walked to Nerima, he found that it hadn't changed much in the last few months.

Splash!

"Never fails, eh?" Ranma thought with long suffering sigh.

He understood that they might get splashed some more before they make it to the dojo, so he didn't use his hot water yet. He also wasn't so uncomfortable with his female form. He was still a guy, but he was used to it and couldn't be bothered about it since he would get splashed several times a day.

He all kept on getting splashed when changed into his uncursed form. He gave up trying to change before he got to the Tendo dojo after the third splash.

Looking round in Nerima, it looked smaller, dirtier and, well ... ordinary.

In his mind, it took on a more perfect quality which was now shattered. Not unlike his naivity to his life. He knew he had to confront his former life before he could move on.

When he were almost there, he went into the back of his pack and dug out a thermos. He had several spares. He was still a water magnet, but it seems it was less in the hospital. He had come prepared.

As he was coming to the dojo, he was surprised when it was Genma and Mr. Tendo who was there. It was a school day and Kasumi was out shoppping. They stared at each other for a while, but it felt weird. The words, "the schools must be joined" didn't come out of their lips for the first time he can remember being at the dojo. Genma seemed more somber, while Mr. Tendo seemed at peace.

What he was really staring at were his eyes that were slitted like a cat. It tickled their memories, but they couldn't remember why they were actually terrified of them.

"Hello Ranma." said Genma, "It has been a while." The change in Genma was profound. He wasn't the pig headed father, but a person to be respected when he showed Ranma the techniques. Genma explained that he had a call from Kuno and knew that Ranma did know of his history. That had been five days before Ranma's release. The time had given Genma to remember his friend Renjiro Tanaka. It had also given him time to really talk with his old friend. It took them all that time to get to a solution to resolve their problem.

Their problem was honour. It wasn't until Ranma came to the dojo to confront his past, that they thought that something could be salvaged. The Tendo name was stained beyond belief. Destroying someone's reputation, truly finding out that their so called honour was a sham and finally the maiming of Ranma was all that Soun could take. It was then he took down the Dojo sign and told Ranma to come back later that night.

He also found that Kuno and his father confronted Kodatchi. It was a nasty argument, but in the end to save the Kuno name, Kodatchi will have Kuno Industries in Japan, but Kuno and his father would move out of the country and control Kuno Industries outside of Japan. Kodatchi will be able to keep her name, but neither her or any of her children will have the Kuno name after her. After that, Principal Kuno and Kuno formally acknowledge that they have no sister/daughter. Both Kunos had finally realized that Kodatchi that they had known had died long ago when Mrs. Kuno died.

The final part was that Mrs. Kuno's room was finally opened and searched the secret rooms. In it they found Renjiro and will have a grand burial in the Tanaka plot. Mrs. Kuno will remain buried in the Kuno plot, away from her brother. It seemed a fitting end for them to be apart in death when she ruined his life to get together when he was alive.

Ranma came alone and on time to the dojo.

It was before dinner and Mr. and Mrs. Satome was there as well.

"What are you doing here, ronin." said Mrs. Satome, not designing to even look at him.

"Baka..." Akane started saying before being cut off by his slitted eyes. She felt suddenly nervous, but when that happened she usually turned it to anger.

Soun said, "I invited him here because it has come to my attention that there are many things that will be discussed this night." in his voice was the man they remembered before their mother died, a sensei, master of himself.

As Mrs. Satome was about to leave, Ranma took out the Satome Honour Sword and handed it to Genma who took the sword and swiftly placed it on his wife's neck, close enough to draw blood. The sword was a curious colour of off grey.

This surprised her, Genma was a weak coward and never used any weapons. Yet the proficiency that he handled the blade had startled her. The cold ice in his eyes made her see the man he was all those years ago when Renjiro was alive and it filled her with dread. She slowly dropped to her knees and Genma removed the sword.

The others girls were in shock, but were more so whey they saw Ranma's eyes. Somewhere in their minds, something screamed at them to remember.

"I think we will listen to what will be said." said Genma.

It was at that cue that Soun looked at his daughters. He studied them, one at a time. They felt his eyes on them and for the first time, he didn't look away, meeting their gaze with one of steel. One was of disappointment and the other one was of disgust.

The first one that he looked at was that of Nabiki. "At first, I had thought that it would have been you who would be the one who most disappointed me, but I was wrong. You were the only one who truly tried to change some of the things that happened to Ranma. The one that, despite being the "Ice Queen", was the voice of reason, but in many others, you were worse than the others...

Before any of them could respond, he continued, "As of now, the profits made on Ranma, whether in your trading ventures, they are stopped, now and what remains are his." This surprised Nabiki to fumble for her phone, but stopped as he said, "Don't try. It's the law, Ranma is now 18 and is entitled to it."

"Entitled!" yelled an outraged Mrs. Satome.

"Shut up!" yelled Genma, with that he glowed. His eyes told her that if she passed the line she will be HURT. Mrs. Satome backed down more stunned than intimidated.

"But it is you Akane and especially you Kasumi that truly disappointed me. Akane with your temper, you never did grow up. YOU AREN'T THE BEST! Pride and temper are your worst enemies. In this I truly hope that you will do better with Honda than you did with Ranma." a shocked look on Akane's face. Secrets were being opened and the air was thick with it, "Kasumi, out of all of the others, you are the one I least expected to do...THIS."

He looked again out to the three as he saw the retort in their eyes, "I know that I wasn't the best of a father after your mother's death, but when I did recover..." the others looked skeptical, "...but you locked me out of your lives and made it so that I couldn't do anything.

"The few students that endured my pain I had wouldn't have left, if not for Akane for beating them up thinking they were perverts to Nabiki extorting yen from them. The worst was my last student. You, Kasumi, gave him Akane's cooking. He almost died. I had to mortgage the dojo to help him in his recovery, to cover legal expenses and compensate his family. He has now permanent kidney and liver damage." The shocked expressions told him the truth. As they never even tried to find out what happened to the person. They thought he mortgaged the dojo for some crackpot schemes of his.

"The damage was even more severe than that. The dojo was considered... unsuitable for anyone else. No one else wanted to be taught because of the fear for their lives."

As he took a deep breath, he continued, "Under all of your arrogance, you are as GOOD as you THOUGHT Ranma was, but yet you NEVER had his HONOUR." The stressed words were having an affect.

As this sunk in, he reached under the table and he took out the dojo sign and the Tendo Honour Sword. The girls were puzzled by this.

They were enlightened as he said, "Look at this, it represents honour. Determination, dedication, patience and being accountable for all things in the dojo. Never take anything for granted was what founded this school of ANYTHING GOES. In your acts of dishonour to Ranma, you have dishonoured yourselves, the school and more importantly the Tendo name. You have been living with him, sleeping in the same house as him and going to the same school with him for almost two years. In all that time, he has never done anything to dishonour anyone. He actually kept everyone's honour intact. He was the most honourable person anyone could meet."

Mr. Tendo stopped as he glared at his daughters and then continued, "Yet, you still listened to HER. Yes, she was his mother and head of the Satome Clan, but right from the start she dishonoured her own son who she saw for the first time in TEN YEARS, on the first day. For this, it is up to me to remedy it." as he started to glow green and in one swift move with the sword, sliced the sign into bits. It looked like he never moved, but the bits of wood told a different story.

This shocked everyone. For the girls, it was the crushing of honour. For the Genma, it was destruction of a dream. For Ranma, it was the loss of a sensei, but the return of the man who founded the dojo.

"Without honour, it was just a useless piece of wood." he continued as he looked at their shocked expressions, "From now on, I consider my daughters dead when they nearly killed Ranma." As he stood up, he said, "The dojo and the house are yours. It was once a place of great honour, but now a place tainted with great shame. Do as you will with it. As I know you will sell it."

It was only after that tirade that he went upstairs to gather his things along with the Tendo Honour Sword.

It was then that Ranma remembered a movie that he saw all those years ago in America. Someone translated it for him, but never understood how it could happen, until now. The movie was with Meg Ryan and Andy Garcia. It was about a alcoholic who was out of the family for years until she sobered up then she found that there was no place for her and the others resisted to change. This was almost the same.

Soun was emotionally broken and taken years to recover, but what happened was that his esteem in the Art was compromised when his daughters took charge of his life. When he did recover, he found that his daughters had no use for him and his couldn't handle his independence from them.

They should have been happy that their father was back and would be able to provide for them again, but it didn't happen. Four years was too much time. They were too set in their ways and acted accordingly to what they perceived as a threat to their status. They eliminated it. His independence and placed him under their thumb for the next six years.

It was only now that they realized that they crushed him almost as thoroughly as when his great love, their mother, died.

Before anyone could do anything, Genma spoke in a very grave tone at Nodoka. "Today a great wrong will be righted. As Soun considers his daughters dead, so I consider you dead as well. You aren't the woman I married years ago. She died when she let the hate fill her." This was the Genma of years ago when he was with Renjiro. The real honourable man under all that excess and greed.

Ranma continued where Genma left off, "It was a time of long ago, the rain was fierce and in the mist a car hurtling over a curve struck a person... with a pigtail just before he was supposed to meet a woman he loved. He didn't die immediately and was taken to the best hospital where he died. The woman he loved searched high and low for him, but never found him, never knowing that his sister had already taken him away. Where the woman took the sister's word, who she knew hated her, that he left her and it poisoned whatever feeling she ever had for him."

Nodoka didn't seem to listen, but Ranma saw the small twitch and still continued.

"She let the woman take vengeance for her. On the son that she would bore and marry a man she didn't love, but for revenge. A friend of the pigtailed man and herself where after 19 years, came back and gave his fiancees and the fiancee's family the vengeance that the sister sought from the grave.

"That didn't happen. Only a lucky stroke made him live and the kindness of the hospital where the son of the pigtailed man died did his son emerge as a grown man... from there he had found the truth..." from his pocket, he produced a yellowed letter, "...a letter written by the pigtailed man before he died to the woman he loved and their unborn child before death and his sister had taken him. Only a failthful servant had taken the letter before his mistress could have destroyed it, which is now delivered to it's rightful place."

With that, he let the yellowed envelope fall with just a wisp in front of her. Nodoka's eyes widened as she recognized the unique brush strokes that made up her and Ranma's names and started to tremble with thought of the message it contained. The trembling stopped when the icy vengeance that had encased her fragile heart cracked. What really broke it was that the writing was written in blood. His blood.

It was then that she felt pain. No one had done anything, but there was pain nevertheless. As everyone turned to the crackling sound that emanated from the Satome Honour Sword with the same errie white glow around Nodoka as they could almost see wisps of white swirling around her.

Nabiki, Akane and especially Kasumi were still. For the first time, they could feel spirits in the room. Angry spirits. As aburptly as the spirits came, they left... except one. A great feeling of disappointment fell over them as the candles that were burning at their mother's shrine were suddenly blown out and the presence vanished.

The tension broke when Akane, true to blinded form, yelled, "Ranma no baka, I'll finish what I started!" and produced her war hammer. She tried to use the Umisenken, but was shocked when Ranma seemed to know where she was and dropped her flat on her back with a single punch. The hammer came down and shattered into a thousand pieces when he casually swiped it with his ki claws.

Soun had just come down and was in shock. After she tried three more tries to hit Ranma with three more of her mallets, Soun actually did an Anything Goes modified Demon Head Attack and for the first time it actually did damage. He had whipped his head forward and it shot out like a ki blast that hit Akane. This attack drove her into the wall and rendered her unconscious. Everybody was shocked. An actual ki attack by Mr. Tendo and it was on his own daughter... well former daughter.

Even though Nabiki knew that Akane did deserve that, she was still mad at her former father and Ranma for hurting her sister until she saw his biting gaze, knowing that she was responsible for that too. Kasumi had ran to and knelt by Akane ad found to her relief that she was alright.

"The money that I made for you, Nabiki, is mine. All those bank accounts." Ranma said, "I checked them myself."

At this, Nabiki ran upstairs and took her laptop looked into her accounts. They were all closed, except her earliest one. As she looked up, Ranma continued, "But I did leave you with enough money to keep the house and livelihood for a few years. Those blackmailing info is erased, even the one in your locker. Be lucky that I don't turn it over to the police. I did keep a copy of your files just in case you try some revenge. If you do try anything at all, it will be sent to the police and you know as well as I do what the 'good people' of Nerima will do to you."

Speechless, she when knew that she could never cover her tracks and if it was turned over to the police and the influential people would destroy her and her life. She thought of vengeance when she looked at Ranma and suddenly saw the intelligence in them and... a hungry look for vengeance that made her shiver. He had learned some very valuable lessons concerning her and she knew that she didn't want to know first hand what it was or how he improved upon them.

Besides, she now knew that Mrs. Satome had omitted very important information about Ranma to get them on her side. The dishonour that she said was his was really on her.

What surprised her was the look in his eye.

Flashback

They were just getting the scheme to get some more money when then next weird thing arrives when Ranma suddenly said, "Nabiki, when are you going to get out of the blackmailing busness?"

As she was about to say that it wasn't any of his business when she reconsidered it. She was thinking about it because she was going to go into university and didn't want the baggage, "One day. That's when we do not need the money."

Ranma had a thoughtful look on his face and nothing was said about his later on.

End of Flashback

She then opened the earliest account and found to her surprise that half the money from the other accounts were transferred to it. The other half was transferred to Soun's bank account that she was using for household expenses. She then closed her computer very slowly and looked down. She didn't want to show the others about the tremendous respect she had for him. Despite whatever they did to him, he was still cared enough for them to let them live their lives.

Genma said to Nodoka, "You are no longer a Satome, you have dishonoured the name FAR more than I could EVER have." He then turned to Ranma and continued, "I will reinstate you if you so want, but it is up to you. Your parents will surely know. The ninja that followed your orders and had given me the insane training schedule reports directly to the Emperor himself."

Before he left his shaken former mother, he said, "Do whatever you want with the letter. Cut it up, burn it, throw it away or even don't believe it if you read it. Know that you ONCE could had the love of your life and you turned your back on him... even in death." he then turned to the two Tendo sisters, "Without trust there is nothing for a foundation."

With that, he took out a bottle of 110 Shampoo and used his variation of the Xi Fa Xiang Gao technique on his former mother and the Tendos women. Cologne had given him the technique to finish this chapter in his life with the Amazons and the Tendos. He had improved upon the original and now even the counter to the technique original formula would do no good.

Akane yelled, "What did you do, you pervert?!"

He merely replied, "I took away the all the moves except the Tendo Style from your minds as they didn't belong to you, including muscle memory." He then looked at his former mother in a deathly quiet voice that she remembered Renjiro having only when he was really angry, "I also took all of Renjiro's moves from your mind as you didn't deserve to have that in his memory." His former mother seemed afronted at that.

"You had no right!" yelled Akane before anyone could react.

"I HAD EVERY RIGHT. It wasn't a Tendo or Satome Technique to begin with, but another's so you aren't entitled to it." Ranma countered and as mad as Akane was, she knew she couldn't do anything about it.

His former mother said nothing as she knew who originated the techniques. She was about to voice her displeasure when she remembered that Renjiro had said it was for his blood descendent, not his son as he knew of ways that could make his son a ronin at no fault of his own as it had happened many times in the past with his family. Renjiro made her and Genma swear on all their honour that only the his descendent will know it. Genma had broken his word, but when Copycat Ken said that he would not pass on the techniques, his honour was restored.

Both Nabiki and Kausmi said nothing, but Kasumi's eyes burned.

Ranma's eyes burned right back with an intensity that exceeded Kasumi's and said the most dreaded thing that all the Tendos have ever head, "I'm really glad that your mother isn't here to see what all of you have become." He took no satisfaction at the way Kasumi and Akane snapped up, but reamained defiant until they would fully realize later THEY were ones who wronged him.

Soun were just waiting for them outside as they walked out the door of the compound Ranma gave Soun a nod and disappeared, never to set foot in Neima again.

Author's note:

Some completions. Kinda cheezy. 


End file.
